Off the Ground

A great week. With Jim's help we went from this.......

......... to this.

Kirk laying the first blocks. We chose Faswall blocks to build our house with. They are made in Philomath, the town next to Corvallis, so in addition to being made from recycled green wood pallets we could also pick them up from the plant. We like the idea that they are made locally by a small independent company and do not have to be shipped thousand of miles





Concrete bumper truck pouring cement to secure the footings

Breaking Ground .........finally

Jim taking pains to make sure everything is level and well formed

Time to fill in holes, lay gravel and prepare the footing. I love it when we have good help!


View of septic system underneath the rainbow.


First job was digging trenches to home all of the conduit for electrical and plumbing. Of course it was wet, cold and difficult to work with, not to mention heavy. Kirk as usual put his back into it without complaint. Finally the sun came out and a little extra help.

Death of a Beauty

Sadly this beautiful Walnut tree had to be removed, we are on a flood plain and thus chose to build on the highest elevation of the field. Somewhat ironic, since we have planted 2,000 new trees on the property in three years. It was heartbreaking to remove the only old growth tree on the site.

Kirk with chain saw making headway.

The Trunk.
One very heavy trunk, which will be our front door.
Removing the stump proved too much for the tractor even after we had loosened all of the surrounding soil, so we too were stumped.
By chance and a huge stroke of luck an old friend of Kirk's showed up the next day with his old Forest Service pick-up. He offered his services and we put the vehicle through it's paces. Several dozen pick-up pulls later and a couple of broken cables, the walnut tree was out. Thank-you Rick Cope and happy retirement!

Guy Fawkes?!