Chapter 13...Rushing Water And Culverts

Off Grid...Chapter 13 Hi everyone. The week of 21, 2008. Monday- Not too much happened today. I had to go to town and pick up a spare tire and Mike worked on the electrical set up for the house. When I got back from town Mike told me the man from the spray foam insulation company was coming out for an estimate. He met us, looked at the house, gave us an estimate, and said he will be coming next week to do the job. Sounds good. Now Mike has to get the solar panels installed on the roof and all the wiring done before they come. We also have to finish the eaves on the front of the house which we haven't had a chance to finish. It's been really tough(and great) since we moved here because we have so much to do and we are all over the place. We got a heavy rainstorm this afternoon so that threw us off for the rest of the day but we finally got to burn our debris pile. We started a pile of cut trees and trimmings about 2 months ago that got HUGE. It's been so dry out that we didn't want to burn. We burned it right after the rain. Another job done! Tuesday- Today we were going to start getting the house ready for the spraying next week but we got a call from our grader. He said he was going to bring a backhoe and a dump truck over today to work on our road. Let me tell you, you never turn a contractor down when they are ready to work. So again we got sidetracked and had to work on the roads. Never let someone else do a job for you without being there. It will never get done the way you want it. They used the backhoe and started working on our ditch line at the top of our hill. Yes the same one Mike and I were working on the other night. The backhoe of course can go much deeper and also much faster than we could have. They scooped out the dirt from the ditch, loaded it into the truck, and dumped the excess dirt in one of our low spots. Our extra dirt Mike and I raked out the sides of the road as we all made our way down the hill. We also picked up any larger rock and threw them into the ditch. By late afternoon we made it down to the point where we had to put a culvert in. We got a 30 foot long 18" in diameter culvert from David's and started to put it in. This is Jimmy and Randy unloading the culvert. And putting it in the ditch crossing under our road. We had to cross the road to get to an existing ditch that goes to the area where the spring is. Right now there is a bathtub there that catches the spring water for the cows to drink out of. This will also be our future pond site. Of course the cows had to check out the new ditch. Here is a picture of the Bull. While I was making dinner, Mike used his tractor to grade the driveway. He wants to slope it towards the ditch so that all the rain water runs into the ditch. He is also trying to get the road ready for gravel which is supposed to be delivered tomorrow. We still have some areas where we have to shovel extra dirt out of the ditch. Later on it started to rain so we had to go inside. Hopefully we don't get too much rain because our "raw" roads will turn into a muddy mess. Wednesday- We got lucky last night and it didn't rain too hard so we are waiting for the gravel delivery. Mike called at 8:30am to find out where the truck was. "He'll be there soon". So we waited, and waited and 3 hours later the guy in the gravel truck showed up. He put the first coat of gravel on. Top of our hill before gravel And after he spreads gravel at the top of our hill and down to our culvert. Mike and I continue cleaning up by raking, some of the gravel ended up on the grass, and throwing more rocks into the ditch. I think we might have to get the grandkids to help with all the rocks. This will just be an ongoing process. Later on it rains(again) but it only lasts about 1/2 hour. So Mike and I going running outside with the umbrella to see how well our ditch and culvert did. This is the water in our ditch and doing a good job. And our culvert is working great although we still have a lot to clean up. And this is where(hopefully) our water will end up. The spring area, future pond site and watering bathtub for the cows. It's a mess now but eventually it will look great. On our way back up to the top we picked up more rocks and threw them into the ditch which really got cleaned out from the rain. We also started raking some of the gravel back onto the road that got dumped on the grass. It will be an ongoing process to get the land in shape. That's all for today. We are tired so we are taking a break tonight.  Lisa and Mike