Chapter 139...Developing Our New Lot To Build A Store

We are building a store this spring and we can't wait to get going:)

I need to take you back to the beginning to get everyone up to date.  Mike and I bought this property for a great deal a few years ago.  Little by little we have worked on it but we didn't have any definite plans for it.  This year we decided to build a store on it which can later be converted to a small house if we choose to do that.

The lot we bought is two acres on a main road.  Mike and I had vision for this lot.  It was very low lying but there is a big hill, mountain, in the back of it.  We decided to call in our grader and have him dig out the back hill and push it forward to make the lot level with the road.


Randy works on the trackhoe and starts out by pushing trees down.  The power of these machines amaze me.

Moving a tree down the hill.

The lot is getting cleared.

The big logs being loaded up.

The lot is graded.

Mike and I put down 150 pounds of grass seed and we installed some gates.

Back to 9/3:
We have some rain in the forecast so Mike wants to get seed on the hill across the way. It is a very very steep hill This is the plan. We are going to take 2 buckets, one for each of us, and 100 pounds of grass seed and drive through a neighbor's property and throw the seed "down" from the top We get to the top border of our property and I carry the buckets while Mike carries one bag of seed.

This is the hill we are trying to seed.

Mike goes one way and I go the other way with our buckets of seed. Looking across at Mike.

It is very steep and very hard to walk on. I finally made it as far as I could with my bucket of seed and I froze. All I could think of was tumbling down the mountain. I had no idea how I was going to get back to meet Mike in the middle. I'm thinking "oh great Mike is going to have to call 911 to get me off this hill" I got down on all fours and started to crawl backwards with my bucket. I was finally able to get back to the middle. I told Mike "I am done with this hill". He took the last bit of seed we had left and threw it down the hill.

We did the best we could. It is not an easy hill. Next spring we will have to work some more on it. After we got back to the Jeep, we drove down and put more seed on the flat area. Whew!!!

The bank is already growing in.

Getting closer to building.  It's time to install the electric to this lot.  First we have to add some heavy rock at the entrance.  We need to build up the driveway going in.  

Instead of doing the work at the lot, Mike decides to put the electric pole and wiring together at the house.  Then we load it all onto the trailer and take it to the lot:

I help him stand the electric up and hold it against the pole while Mike straps it onto the telephone pole:

Here I am pounding in the ground rod:

Mike screwing in the breaker box:

Mike installing the copper ground wire:

Getting ready for the new building.  Mike is going to put poles in the ground for our concrete man:

Mike pounding in one pole:

The lot is a lot bigger than it seems:

Now we are prepped and almost ready to build.  In one of my next chapters I will write about having the driveway reinforced for the concrete trucks to get in and pour a foundation.


I know this was short and sweet but I just wanted to get everyone up to date with our plans.

Have a great day!!!

Chapter 118...Paving And Developing Another Lot

Off Grid...Chapter 118 Today's story is about the last of our paving job and an old lot we have. As you know we started slowly paving the driveway for the past 2 years. We have done small sections at a time so we didn't have heart failure over the price Now we are finally to the last section 7-28 The fun begins. Today the paving crew is here to start working on our driveway. We are having it paved just until the pond/barn area. We aren't paving the rest because we don't want it torn up by the cow people when the bring in the big hay and cattle trucks. We also got a call form Jimmy. our grader who has been occupied with a another big job this year. He is finally able to get equipment onto our lot to start working. Of course we have both different crews working at the same time so Mike and I will have to oversee 2 jobs in 2 different locations at the same time. The graders start out by tearing up our old gravel and getting down to the base of our road. Mike asked them to make sure "this" time that our drive is slightly sloped towards one side of the road so the water run off will go into the spouts and not wash out the end of our drive. They are here for the day just prepping the drive. The drive is marked and ready for asphalt which will happen tomorrow. 7-29 The paving crew is here and waiting for the asphalt truck. Mike and I go to the lot to check on the progress. The lot is lower than the road so we are having Randy cut into the back hill and make the front part the same height as the road. Unfortunately we have to take down a lot of trees....more firewood for others. We have plenty 7/29-8/8 Randy pushing a tree down with the track hoe. The power of these machines amazes me. Moving a tree down the hill. Lot is getting cleared. OK..time to get back home. I see the asphalt truck First truck of asphalt is down. They go back to get another truck load. Back at the farm the guys are ready. The asphalt is unloaded from the truck and onto the paver. The father is on the paver and steering while the 2 guys on the back of the paver control the depth and width of the asphalt being dumped out. Moving right along and almost done with laying out the asphalt. Then one of the guys tamp down the edges. They make it to the end with an extra 40 feet of paving...we'll take any extra Once they are at the end they have to hand roll that part of the drive. While they were finishing up the cows came down to cool off, lol. They let the pavement cool down a bit and then roll out the rest of it. The paving is done Now we just have to wait for them to come back to do the curbs. The lot is taking much longer to do but it is almost cleared. The big logs being loaded up. We also got some cool boulders to bring back home..unfortunatley one of them fell in the middle of the driveway. The good thing is it wasn't on the fresh pavement Mike's new boulders in place. He is very happy about them. The lot is done being graded. Mike and I put down 150 pounds of grass seed and we installed some gates. That's all for now. We now have some smaller jobs to accomplish for the rest of the Summer and Fall. Then it's time to hibernate I hope you enjoyed our story. Lisa [+] Rate this post positively