January 18, 2009: Farm Project Day 1

  Well, I guess it is day 1.  If we start the count all over again?  How about we start the count today!  So, day one!

  We met everyone up at the farm this morning at 10 AM.  My dad fixed the water pipe that froze a month ago.  The water is running now for baths, showers, toilets, and sinks.  So, we are good to go!  Now I need to get a refrigerator up there.  I think Bobby (one of our builders/friends) is going to bring one to use temporarily.  That way we can have food and drinks for the workers.

  We then met with Kelly.  This is the guy doing our foundation.  We marked off one corner of the house – southwest side.  That is all he needs.  He can go from there and figure out the rest.  The house will face north.  Same as the old house that is already up there.  The house will then be west to east in length  Media room on the top floor – facing west of course.  I have to be able to see the storms as they roll in!  Master bedroom on the east side – top floor.

  Then we met with David from the Massac County Water Department.  He asked us where we wanted to run the water lines (county).  So, we showed him where we thought the best place would be for them to run the lines and put the hydrant.  Looks like they will be five or six weeks out.  So, maybe the county water will be working in late February or early March.  As long as the weather holds.

  We met with Roddy and his brother.  More builders.  This will be the team building the house – Roddy, his brother, and Bobby.  Then they will have others working with them.

  We are going to bring my radio tower up on Wednesday.  If we can get in touch with junior (who has the tower at his farm).  The tower is 55′ tall.  It cranks down to 21′.  So, pretty long.  We are going to pick it up Wednesday afternoon and use Bobby’s truck to haul it.  He has a 16′ trailer.  Dylan and some of his friends along with Joey, Tony, and myself are going to move it.  Should be enough guys to lift.  The tower weighs 800 pounds.  Not very light!  We should be able to handle it, though.

  It sounds like they will start digging the foundation tomorrow.  Concrete will be flowing this week.  My foundation should be finished by the end of next week.  That is the current plan. 

  The weather looks like it will hold until Friday/Saturday.  We could see some ice or snow (rain?) on Friday into Saturday.  A storm system is coming in from the southwest.  It may stay south of us, though.  Too early to know that.  I will have to check out the maps through the week.  We could see another ice storm or snow/rain event next week.  It looks like we might get an active storm pattern soon.  It has been fairly quiet the last few weeks.  Earlier it looked like Friday would be warm enough for rain.  Not so sure of that today.  Will keep an eye on it.  😉

  Other than that – busy picking up stuff from Wal Mart for the house up on the farm – some tools – miscellaneous stuff.  Tomorrow I am going to clean up the bathroom in the house up there on the farm.  Also going to see about having DirectTV hooked up.  The guys can have some television then – news/weather/whatever.  They will be staying there while they build the house.  Keep everything safe and secure that way.

View north this morning – looks like winter has killed just about everything.  Not much green out there.

Meeting with the builders.  Neighbors dog – comes up to visit just about everytime I am
up there.

Meeting with the builders and the foundation workers.

The neigbors dog came over for a visit.  One the dog is only has three legs.  Not sure what happened to it.

Tony (my brother in law) talking to David (the guy in charge of the water in Massac County)

County water!

My weather instruments are going to go back here – southwest side of the property.