Mod Set - D Minus 1

6:30 a.m., and I'm stirred from post-breakfast stupor by the sound of engines. It's the building site manager, Scott Dawson and excavator par excellence Bryce Lish. They're heading up to the job site; I'm getting dressed. I've already fed the cats and dog, so I leap onto my ATV and skid gravel up our driveway to where the crane has been resting for the past week, waiting for the rain to stop. It did on Tuesday.

Digging out stumps from the trailer path

As I went down to the county road to open the gates onto Dave Pielaet's land, Bryce maneuvered his backhoe CAT down the slope north of our land us, tore out some low-to-the-ground tree stumps, and transplanted a fir that was dead center in the trail the house modules would take up to our property. The crane made its way up to the house site with little difficulty and set up near the garage foundation.

Lift spreaders were rigged and ready to go tomorrow.

Crane set at house site

I drove down to the house to get Pepper and take him for his morning walk, but instead of making our usual loop, I took him down the trail on Dave's land, down to where the crane had been, and down toward the county road to wait for the first module. Suddenly, it was in sight, following two lead cars with flashing yellow lights, sitting on a flatbed the size of a trailer, behind a Volvo truck. 

Module arrives at county road gate...

It stopped at the county road gate to Dave's property. Many measurements of the gate and sweep angles. Advantage has one truck with a variable pintle, which allows the trailer wheels to be aligned differently than the tractor wheels. Scott lifted off a gate to ensure more room, and after much maneuvering, the truck and trailer were through.

...and goes cross country...

But, instead of coming up Dave's gravel road, the truck swept wide left into Dave's grazing field (the steers were fenced onto the woods behind his house) and made its way up to the gravel turnaround where the crane had been the previous week. Part way, Bryce used his CAT to tow the tractor/trailer, keeping it on line with the second gate. During this maneuver, Karen held Pepper on lead while I took photographs; she was eventually relieved by her son, Donovan, who also took photographs while I managed my camera and Pepper.

After Scott convinced the Advantage Trucking drivers that they really didn't have to remove any additional trees to get the load up Dave's hill, they started off again, Bryce towing. Near the intersection with our driveway, Bryce did have to rip out a few bushes on our fence line, but after that it was smooth moving, up our driveway and onto the building site, where the module-on-a-trailer was parked east of the garage.

...through the trees...

...to the house site

...where it's staged for lifting tomorrow

Two more modules to go today. Tomorrow, the final module will be dragged up to the building site, and the module set will take place. Wednesday is Mod Set - D Plus 1. Let the interior and exterior finishing begin!