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Monday, December 11, 2017

Culvert and Clearing

Our first week.

We arrived in Florida on a Sunday night and checked into our favorite rv park for a month.  We will use this as our home base until we can move over to the new property.

Monday morning we closed on the new property.  On our way to the property we picked up a gate for the front and dropped that off.  Then it was off to M&J's to have our tractor towed to our new place.  We also brought over our other trailer with the small lawnmower.  As soon as we got there Mike and I started mowing.  Mike on the tractor with the bush hog and me on the small lawnmower.  We had a lot of clean up to do since the property was really overgrown.  The back area had small 6-8 foot trees on it that made it impossible to walk through when we first saw this place.  Mike is able to knock them down with the tractor and bush hog.  I'm kind of jealous because I know he is having loads of fun just plowing through the trees, lol.  I'm just getting covered with dusty debris from sitting so low on the lawnmower.  Really now that we have flat land Mike really needs to teach me to drive the tractor.

We spent about a week cutting and clearing.  Sadly I lost all of the pictures from that time because my camera was lost.  I still haven't found it.


Tuesday October 17-

We are going to do as much of the work ourselves as we can.  Mike using the tractor to dig out the area where we need a culvert:





We were a little busy wrestling the two 10ft culverts and the collar in the mud to take pictures.  Mike and I got enough of a hole dug, him with the tractor and me with the shovel,  for us to drop the culvert in place.  Then we added the collar and put the second culvert on the other side of the collar.  We had to do some wrestling to get the two culverts locked together.  But we did it.



Mike digging:




Digging the sides a little deeper for the water to flow out:




Covering the culvert.  Now we can have a gravel delivery:



We got quite a pile of trees and debris from our clean up round.  We called for a burn permit and started our first clean up fire:



Mike pushing the outer edges in with the tractor bucket:



We called for a couple of truckloads of gravel.  Gravel is a lot different here in Florida than in the mountains.  Since we don't have a choice we had a truck load of Millings delivered which is crushed up recycled pavement.


10-18

First truck load coming in:



Mike using that tractor again:



Cleaning up by our entrance.  Getting ready for big trucks to come in:



Our new gate:











10-19
We had a rainy day so it was a good day to get our permits.  The ladies at the county were fantastic.  They helped us draw up the plans and apply for our septic permit.  They also helped with the 911 address information.  Even though it was raining we got a lot done.

10-20
We had another truck load of millings delivered and Mike spent his time smoothing it out.

10-21
Yesterday was my birthday but with Mike and I it's always work before play so we went out to dinner today to celebrate with M&J:)  M is very thoughtful and gave me a pair if work gloves and cream for my hands.  We have a lot of vines and poison ivy/oak here so the gloves will really help(and have:)).



Of course there were many other things going on this week that didn't require pictures and since I lost my camera I lost all of the pictures of us clearing the back 2/3 of the property.  Each day we spent more time mowing, cutting and clearing. I also made multiple calls to contractors to get estimates...we will see who calls back, lol. We did hire our well and septic man.


Next up...ordering trusses and getting a concrete crew.

6 comments:

  1. In all my years working for the state highway department and putting a lot of driveway entrances in, I know the fun of getting those pipes together with that band. Thank goodness for all thread to get the collar lined up for the bolts. And I love millings, but I'm glad you got them all leveled out the same day. There's enough oil in the millings that, if the heat gets to it just a little bit, it will set up almost as hard as the road it came off of.
    Have fun!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh yeah you know all about culverts. Thankfully I haven't had to do more than a few. And the collars can be a bear, lol. It was a different set up than we are used to.

      The millings are good and we needed to get a solid base in for the heavy trucks. That would be great if it set up again. I do like the pavement on our main road. It is more grey than black. Do you know what that might be?

      Delete
    2. Oh yeah you know all about culverts. Thankfully I haven't had to do more than a few. And the collars can be a bear, lol. It was a different set up than we are used to.

      The millings are good and we needed to get a solid base in for the heavy trucks. That would be great if it set up again. I do like the pavement on our main road. It is more grey than black. Do you know what that might be?

      Delete
  2. You sure do have camera problems.....What are the plans for the house? You mentioned that you were going to stay at the RV park for a month, so it would seem you don't have the time to build from scratch? Pre-fab?

    Congrats on the marriage....we have 37 years together, and it's been great! Much happiness to you both.

    Bil & Claudia

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hate that I lost those first pics of the land. I will go back sometime soon and take pictures of the back area which is beautiful. As you can see my blog is behind so that month in the rv park has come and gone. We are at the property boondocking in the van. M&J have offered us housing at their house which is close but we like to be onsite to work. We are building from scratch. Similar to the store but higher roof, bigger and doors and windows, lol.

      I am so happy to know another happy couple. Many more happy years to you both.

      Delete
    2. I hate that I lost those first pics of the land. I will go back sometime soon and take pictures of the back area which is beautiful. As you can see my blog is behind so that month in the rv park has come and gone. We are at the property boondocking in the van. M&J have offered us housing at their house which is close but we like to be onsite to work. We are building from scratch. Similar to the store but higher roof, bigger and doors and windows, lol.

      I am so happy to know another happy couple. Many more happy years to you both.

      Delete