Be Careful What You Wish For

I wished for sun, and I got it all week, with temperatures in the 90s during the day. Walks with Pepper were hot, sweaty affairs, some ending with him diving into Cable Creek to cool off. No indoor cooking - sandwiches some days and a grilled steak last night. Then, our luck ran out.

Early this morning we woke to rain - buckets, sheets, torrents. Pick your adjective of choice. Thunder and lightning. Harry, the old, short-tailed cat got spooked and attacked Pepper, who was shocked. He backed up with a confused growl, but didn't go after Harry. I started fretting about the house site. Would the crane arrive for pre-set? How much water would there be in the foundation?

I drifted off to sleep on the living room sofa, to be awakened at 7:30 by our next-door neighbor, Dave. The crane was in his driveway and under assembly. What the hell? I'd told them to call me before they arrived so I could meet them at the gate. They had. We don't have cell service at our house, so we use Vonage, an Internet-based phone service; apparently, the thunderstorm knocked our our Internet service, so no phone call (we're using cell phones at our new home site; buh-bye, Vonage).

4 inches of rain in the foundation

I dressed quickly and ran my ATV up my driveway to the house site; there were about four inches of water in the foundation. Crap! But the trail from our place down to Dave's was holding up pretty well. Damp, but not muddy. I turned onto the top of his driveway and down toward the gate.

Crane assembly

There was the partially-assembled crane and two operators. As I watched them finish putting the crane together and running cables for the hook, Dave, his girlfriend Teresa, their two dogs (Molly the mastiff and Duke the Australian shepherd), neighbor Pat Ferry and his dog Harley, came by.

Molly, Teresa, Dave, Pat

Pat, who like Dave is as much a friend as a neighbor, offered the use of a pump to suck the water out of the foundation. I gratefully accepted and went back to my garage to pick up a hose and an extension cord. We set up the pump, which
started working like a champ. Pat told me that, on the way over, he saw that the crane had been positioned at its staging point, and the guys from Coeur d'Alene Crane were walking back to their trucks.

Pat positions the pump

 Pat went off to help his girlfriend fix her sprinkler system, and I came back down to the house, where Karen told me Mike Tinsley, our job manager from Stratford Homes called. The whole project has been pushed back a week, but the crane will stay in place, so there's no additional mobilization fee. I'd left the pump going, but, as I started this blog, the rains started again, coming down as hard as they did this morning. When it stops, I'll go up and disconnect the pump. What's the point? Forecast is for more rain through Tuesday, clearing to 20 percent on Thursday, 10 percent on Friday, then clear and sunny through the following Tuesday. Mike will notify all the subcontractors to stand down. And, we wait.

Crane will spend the week on-site at Dave's