Leeks In Our Vineyard: October 2010

Saturday, October 30

Delivery Day

We spent most of this past week anxiously awaiting the arrival of our logs and trying to get ahead on the other work that needs to be done. Mick made a great-looking sign to make our driveway easier to find and installed that on Wednesday afternoon.

We expected the truck from Coventry (the log home company) between 9 and 10 Thursday morning. We wanted to clear some brush and unload and set up the pallets that Marty had brought up with him the night before, so we got to the hill about 8:15. No sooner had we arrived than two loaded trucks pulled up.

Turns out Coventry orders the dimensional lumber locally, and these drivers hadn't gotten the "delivery between 9 and 10" memo.

So while they were making their way up the driveway, Mick and Marty scrambled to unload the pallets from the trailer.

We set them up in what we hoped would be a sensible place.

The first order of business was to move the trailer out of the way. The three-wheeled forklift one of the truckers brought along with him made quick work of that (with a little weight and balance help).

Plywood, flooring, and shingles waiting to be unloaded, while the unloaders ponder where it shall be unloaded to.

Moving timbers around to put under packages. [I did feel bad taking pictures of other people working, but I tried to help out between photo shoots.]

Mick was pleasantly surprised to discover that we received Advantech flooring, a higher quality material than what he expected.

Much dimensional lumber (which we then had the privilege of counting to make sure it matched the shipping list).

We finished unloading Trucks 1 and 2 around 9:15, and as they were on their way out the driveway (and we were hoping for a chance to catch our breath), Truck 3 pulled up with our logs!

While the driver unwrapped his load, Mick and Marty plotted where this batch of goodies should go.

We were so thankful for Marty's help operating the forklift!

They decided to unload the truck from the street to the driveway, then move the packages up to the top of the hill after the truck had left.

Mick loaded the doors and windows onto a pallet.

Once the left side and back of the truck had been unloaded, he moved to the other side of the street so Marty could get to the packages on the right side.

No idea how many trips we made back and forth!

At last, the truck was unloaded!

Leaving us with the task of moving the packages from the driveway to the top of the hill.

One of the most magical parts of the day for me was that a couple of red-tailed hawks watched over us throughout the morning.

Towards the end of the morning, we actually had a bald eagle hovering over our work site!
It was a very busy day -- we didn't really stop between 8:15 and 1:30 (when I had to go to work), and after I left, Mick and his folks finished covering up all the packages with plastic. But we are now gearing up for the next phase of construction! We hope you'll have a chance to see it soon.

Friday, October 22

First Snow of the Season!

There was some kind of sleet or snow most of the day!

Thursday, October 21

We've kind of got a driveway

So they started in earnest on the site work! We went up the hill after Sarah had work yesterday and the landscape had completely changed! Unfortunately I had to go to class, or we would have gotten pictures then. They've cut the entire driveway and made a slight trench for drainage, cut the turn around, and stoned perhaps the first 250-300 feet. I caught a video as I rolled in.

Even with all the work and heavy equipment, they managed to spare our asparagus!

Sarah was worried about the balsam fir, but that made it out unscathed as well. In fact, it'll probably be glad next spring for the weaker competition!

They also did more stump removal and scraping of the site! Here's a panoramic from up top.

We've got a kink or two to work out with the building inspector, but it looks like things are on their way. Now if only I can learn how to do my schoolwork faster so I have a chance at getting it erected!

Saturday, October 16

Broken Ground

So this is what our little clearing for our cabin looked liked this morning

And by the afternoon, it looked like this

Back in July it looked more like this

And further back in March, I don't believe we were even thinking of a cabin yet

It was raining Thursday so the excavators couldn't begin work, but while I was running, about a half mile past the property towards Marathon, a truck passed with me a dozer on the bed. I wondered if it might be for us.

Sure enough, they had left a dozer and an excavator just off the driveway. Sarah and I were about to put some freecycled spruce trees in, when I heard a diesel engine come to life and the clatter of a tracked vehicle working its way up the driveway. John Murdoch felt bad for not being able to work on the driveway, so he showed up to clear stumps and start to scrape the site. He worked for maybe 3 or 3.5 hours and boy did it transform the clearing. This thing was a beast, and the operator was a surgeon. Unfortunately, this clip is probably the least impressive 60 seconds of what he did today, but you get the idea.

And the size of this thing! It was hard for us to get our perspective right, we didn't realize how huge it was until he left and we could get closer

He even did a good job of stacking firewood that I hadn't gotten to yet. Sarah did notice that it certainly made a mess of things. She took this beautiful picture in the morning when we first got there

And took this one after the work had been done.

It's hard to believe this is actually happening.

Monday, October 11

Water and Ice

We survived the flood! McGraw was in a state of emergency when the tropical storm brought its rain to central New York a couple of weeks ago. Just about every creek that could flood did flood, and by the end of the night, there was only one road left open into McGraw...and it involved going way out of our way, so that instead of five miles and eleven minutes, it took us eleven miles and twenty-five minutes to get home from Cortland. Fortunately, we had no water damage, just a dramatic evening!

Those pictures are of the creek through the middle of town the day after all the flooding. The day before the picture was taken, the water was high enough to close the road.
A couple days later, Roscoe and I took a walk down to the creek at the bottom of our property, and it was still soaring pretty high.