Monty started digging the trench for the Idaho Power install tomorrow, and we were amazed at the amount of water flowing in the trench even on the elevated site for the house.  We knew we’ll get water across the pasture but we raised the house to get out of the high water and somehow it’s already high in the elevated soil.  He was really uncomfortable continuing and decided to trench it early tomorrow so it will have less time to fill in with water.

I spent more time on the excavator clearing gravel between the dog kennels, clearing culverts, grooming some walking area around the pond, and trenching for the dog kennel power and water lines.  I was disappointed that I had purchased electrical conduit that was too small for the heavy gauge wire that will be required for the long run.  Without the correct conduit, I was unable to do all the burying it with the excavator, not sure how I’ll finish that piece but I hope it’s not with a shovel.

Being Memorial Day, Kim headed off with the girls to go shopping, so the boy’s and I made alternative plans.  Drake really wanted to shoot carp and Landon was on board, eager to point out that he has never shot a carp or a bird.  Landon can’t shoot a heavy enough bow for carp yet which is why I set up a crossbow for him to shoot.  Our carp pursuits were a flop, never even seeing a carp to shoot at.  We did stop and caught several bluegill on my tiny TFO 2wt fly rod which more than enough fun for Landon but Drake couldn’t shake his unfortunate carp hunt.  The pond was an absolute zoo, though it’s been a while since it was our overlooked oasis.

We have Eric’s kids over so Eric and Katherine can have a night away for his birthday.  With our Suburban packed full of kids, we headed off to Bergundy’s graduation party.  I enjoyed catching up with Keith and Deidra, Georgia, and Craig.  I was bummed that Craig and Lesa have sold their house and will be relocating to Tennessee soon.   We briefly discussed machining and he recommended looking into the NRA gunsmithing summer classes held in Colorado.  He’s gone several times and for the $400 cost, you can’t find better instruction.

At the graduation party, Landon had a spectacular mishap with the large glass lemonade dispenser.  I don’t know how it happened but as he was getting lemonade, the entire spigot broke free in his hand dumping gallons of lemonade on him and littering his plate of food with glass.  In Keith’s rush to minimize the damage, he scooped up the fractured dispenser toppling the lid to the concrete shattering at Landon’s feet.  Landon was scared, wet, and embarrassed, with a few bloody nicks to add injury to insult.  He’s fortunate to have received only a few nick and no something more serious.  Nothing like being memorable.

When I pulled up my calendar this morning, panic swept over me as I read Idaho Power is coming Tuesday to install the power.  I had it in my mind they were coming later in the week.  I was stuck.  I couldn’t cancel them before they would be prepping to come out.  As I called my Idaho Power contact, desperately hoping to catch him on his cell phone…during Memorial Day weekend?, I was stuck leaving a pointless voicemail that there was no way I could complete the trenching in time for his crews.  As I was leaving my pathetic message my excavator guy starting ringing in, I bumbled my message to a close and answer.  To my astonishment, he said that we would be able to dig Tuesday which had been my initial and erroneous request.  I explained my mixup and he offered to dig Monday, I protested slightly that I didn’t want to inconvenience his family and he assured me it wouldn’t.  I thanked him profusely and eagerly left my Idaho Power contact a new message, assuring him that we were still, miraculously on schedule.  What a wonderful Sabbath gift.

We enjoyed our time recharging at church and are grateful for the quiet evening (if you don’t count the house shaking thunder just after sunset).  We discussed a few options for the evening activity and the kids chose to play Cashflow.  It is a deep financial game that teaches players to track and improve finances through investments so that the player can get out of the “rat race”.  This portion of the board is like a hamster wheel where players endlessly revolve around the small circle eager to acquire the cashflow to exit.  We modify the rules for our different aged kids so they can all enjoy, but it was entertaining to watch Drake get frustrated that it was so hard to get ahead financially, other people were doing better, expenses were too high, and he didn’t earn enough.  It’s a long game, but the opportunities for learning are better than any other “game” I’ve seen on the topic.  It’s been left out to continue tomorrow since no one has made it out of the rat race yet.

A quick Mavic Pro flight caught this image in the fading evening light.  Time to get this house sold, a bittersweet proposition.

With any machinery, it’s always fun putting it to work.  This Kubota KX033 is twice the size of the little one I rented for running the plumbing into the shop.  I needed it for running plumbing and power into our future dog kennel, but with Idaho Power install looming, I thought it might work for the 750′ of trench I need to cut to the new house site.  I started where the power pole will be set and quickly abandoned the idea after making surprisingly little progress.  There is no way I will be able to make this thing work, it is too small and has too wide of a bucket.  Now I am going to have to reschedule our power install unless I can find someone willing to dig Tuesday, after Memorial Day.  It’s a long shot and unlikely.

With that failure logged, the pond seemed like the next best place to play with an excavator.  I wanted to create a shallow area where young kids can play and where it would be easier to launch and mount kayaks or paddle boards.  The little ’33 did much better here but didn’t have much reach.  It didn’t take much time to create another large mound of dirt I’ll have to deal with later.  It is a challenge to do underwater work because it is largely done by feel, which I don’t have.  I do, however, now have a little shallow area.  When the clay settles, I’ll have a better idea of any additional work it may need.  Over time, the kid’s playing around will help to smooth out the presumably rough bottom.

I dug a couple septic test holes in a different and was surprised and hopeful that the soil seemed much better than what the inspector had described.  I took pictures and sent them to our septic contractor who also now has his fingers crossed that the inspector will agree on a small, simpler septic system.

After finishing the first septic test hole I did not feel well and decided to take a break.  I wondered if it was the lingering effect of the tetanus shot as I ate lunch and got hydrated.  Feeling better later in the afternoon I ventured back out for more test holes.  With the excavator rocking and spinning again, I quickly discovered my ill feelings had nothing to do with my tetanus shot and, to my embarrassment, was motion sickness!  I’ve spent a lot more time in a large excavator without any trouble but it never swayed or wobbled like this little guy with a loaded bucket.  Sure took the fun out of throwing dirt around.   For you excavator operators that assume I don’t know what I am doing, you’re probably right, but I did have the blade anchored down.  Reminded me of getting seasick while spearfishing, couldn’t have imagined it would ever be an issue in either situation.

This has been a ridiculously long slog to get our twenty acres split into two parcels.  We started the process back in October and have been battling to keep the process moving.  There are numerous government agencies, county departments/officials, and private companies involved.  I’ll name the ones that I can recall:

Our Surveyor

County Planning and Zoning

County Commissioners

County Assessor

County Treasurer

County Recorder

County Surveyor

County Contracted Surveyor

Department of Health

Highway Department

Irrigation District

Documents bounce around endlessly for review and signatures between these parties, often exchanged multiple times.  Every time it changes hands, a new waiting period begins as each party is allowed a set amount of time to complete their given tasks.  The hassle I went through today, pushing hard through the last remaining steps and solving the problems that came up, easily sped up the process two-three weeks.  Crazy!  We officially have a new address.  I cringe at the thought of all the updating of accounts and documents this will require.  On top of all those changes, we probably won’t get any mail or packages for a long time.  Google, after five years, never could send anyone to our correct location.

Landon and I made a quick pit stop at Drake’s class to drop off cupcakes for the summer birthday crowd.

Dumped a lot of stuff at the auction, so we’ll see how that goes and I came back loaded with an excavator I rented for the weekend.

With our realtor scheduled for 9am and the photographer for 9:30am, we were in full scramble mode to sand the laundry room wall patch, texture it, paint it and clean and stage the rest of the house.  We barely completed all our tasks in time.  It was a relief and very satisfying as our realtor raved about the transformation and it’s potential.  After reviewing the recent comps, we decided to list it for $550k!  It feels like a bit of a long shot and we are trying not to get our hopes up but we are tentatively excited.  The photographer was a no-show because of a miscommunication and didn’t come until later in the afternoon.  All day I felt like crap.  My joints ache, muscles are weak, I have occasional chills which are really odd for me.  After a little reading, I learned that these are common side effects of the tetanus shot I received yesterday.  It just wiped me out.

I talked to our septic guy about coming up with a drain field solution so that I can trench for Idaho Power.  At this point, I don’t think I’ll get power installed next Wednesday, which is frustrating because we have waited a long time to get Idaho Power out here.

Started out the morning early to travel to meet up with the District Health Inspector.  He explained how the test hole yesterday went really bad.  He said the soil was C1 or C2 but would need to be tested because the lower of the two would require a 50% larger drain field, up to 1,500 sp/ft.  He even speculated that it could come back “unsuitable” and that maybe we shouldn’t list our house yet.  I am so irritated.  If it fluctuated that much from our original test hole, surely a hole in another location could be better.  Why jump to “unsuitable”?

With house pictures tomorrow we are in a mad rush to finish all interior and exterior projects.  We mowed, trimmed, and got dad’s truck towed to our new lot, finishing up the yard maintenance.  When I was unscrewing a metal bracket in the laundry room, just before the last screw finished coming out, the drill slipped from the head of the screw plunging my left hand into the loose bracket.  I clutched my hand and peered into the gaping hole in my knuckle.  So stupid!  Kim refused to try to stitch it so off to urgent care where they agreed stitches were necessary.  I’m good at stitching up our dogs so I was really curious if I could have done it myself.  I had no way reasonable way of stitching with only one hand, but I was still curious whether or not I could handle the pain, so I opted for no numbing shots.  The flushing of the wound wasn’t painful until the third 60ml syringe.  Not unbearable, but the tissue felt like it was waking back up.  The stitches quickly followed and I was relieved the pain wasn’t excessive as she trimmed the third and final stitch.

The house is almost complete and we should be able to barely wrap it up in the morning before the realtor and photographer arrive.

We met our realtor and went to Fred Myer to get house staging items.  On our way home, our survey company informed us that Mylars had been released and were ready to be signed, YEAH!  We signed and I ran it over to another engineer to get their signature in Meridian.  Upon returning the mylars to our surveyor, he informed me that I would have to track down the district health inspector to get his signature.  When I called him, he told me that my test hole today had been a disaster and we’ll need to schedule a meeting with my septic company.  Horrible.  We did finally get the nearly finalized floor plans, which looked great.  A few minor revisions were added and we should get rolling on elevations soon.