Monday!!

This Monday did not start out well!  We were on the way to the farm about 7:30 in the morning when a car in front of us stopped to turn left.  The truck behind them managed to stop and I did, too, but the SUV behind me did not.  He slammed us into the truck, sandwiching our poor car from both ends.

We were very, very lucky that no one was injured, but two days later, I'm still having problems with my artificial knees.  I have a doctor's appointment next week.

In the trunk of the car was the salad I had made to take to Dan Huntley's barbecue.  I did manage to salvage some of it.  We had a great time at Dan's and met Larry the Cable Guy, filming a segment for "Only in America" to be shown on the History Channel.  Michael Pollan was also supposed to be there, but his father-in-law had a stroke and he wasn't able to come.  I had really looked forward to meeting him.

We've cut back a little on our garden this year since we have so much construction going on, but we did manage to get quite a few eggplant, tomato, and pepper plants in the ground with newspaper and hay mulch.

Our newest additions to the farm family are four ducks that someone gave us.  The ducks made themselves right at home and seem to love the pond.  We're hoping they will eat mosquito larva!

The grapes, figs, and peaches are all looking great!

Apples, cherries, and apricots also look good.  We're already eating lettuce out of the herb garden.  Now I have to go mow the yard.  That will take two days!

Concrete Ballet

We started this week with pest control and internet access.  We now have cable TV and high speed internet.  Progress!

Then the concrete guys showed up to pour the basement floors.  

Reese continues to supervise anything involving trucks.

I was amazed at how delicate concrete finishing is - almost like a ballet!!

They used a lazer to establish the level of the floor.

Jerry, the owner of the concrete company gets very involved in every step.

The lumber for framing was also delivered this week.

It's beginning to look like a house!

Water!!

My brilliant engineer husband managed to hook up the old well to the new temporary power and we now have water!  It's only at the outside hydrants and it's only cold, but it's water!

This nozzle is a solid brass one that we found under the old house.  It's probably 50 years old, but it works better than the new plastic one made in China that broke the second time we used it!

There's nothing better than a shower after working in the garden all day, but the well water is cold!  I'm so glad Tom has never figured out how to use my Leica camera ;-)

Power!

Monday was a very busy day at the farm with trucks from the concrete company, Duke Power, and gravel all arriving at the same time.

Reese guarded the house from his usual spot on the steel beam.

The concrete guys removed the forms and the basement is beginning to take shape.

The next step was waterproofing the basement walls.

The basement floor will have 8 inches of gravel under 4 inches of concrete so 3 dump truck loads of gravel were delivered and spread today.

I was so glad to see the Duke Power crew arrive to install our temporary power!

It didn't take them any time at all to dig a ditch and install the cable.  This time, though, they didn't bring a bucket truck to reach the pole.  A guy with crampons climbed straight up the pole to make the connection.

After Duke connected the outside temporary power box, Tom made all the connections to hook up the house and turn on the power.

I've never seen anything prettier than the light inside the refrigerator when I opened the door!

Tom soon had a well-deserved cold beer.

Now if we just had water.......