Look What the CAT Dug Out

We have a new topographical feature on our ranch. I call it Mt. Dirt, a man-made pile of topsoil, clay and crushed granite that looms over our newly-dug home foundation

The action began early this morning when a flatbed arrived to drop off septic pipe and electrical conduit and nearly dropped off our culvert into Cable Creek. Fortunately, the weight of the truck compensated for the spinning right front wheel of the cab, and it lurched across our bridge and moseyed up our driveway to the building site. Then, time stood still for a couple of hours. Inaction ruled the morning.

At noon, Scott Dawson, our building site manager, arrived to set up a silt fence on the west edge of the big dig. County requirement, though there's no water on the western side of our building site for silt to slide into. A half-hour later, a flatbed hauling a big CAT backhoe and a trailer with a trenching attachment inside pulled up to the intersection of the county road and our driveway. Much maneuvering. Then, the CAT was driven off the flatbed, across the culvert, and up the road, led by Scott and escorted by me on my ATV. I pulled around to the head of the convoy, and glanced back over my left shoulder at the first switchback; the CAT was gone. I looked over my right shoulder, and it was climbing the hill to our home site like, well, a cat.

I got to the homesite just before the CAT, which soon swung into action, digging along the spray-painted outline of the house and garage. Two hours later, the foundation space for the house was excavated and the foundation line around the garage slab was dug out. We lost one modest-sized pine and a few small sarvisberry bushes, along with a handful of old tree stumps. But, we gained a foundation.

After changing the CAT digging head, Lisch Excavation started digging the electrical/telephone wire trench. I had no idea how deep and wide the trench would be.

Not the Grand Canyon, but pretty impressive. They got most of the way down the hill, trenching and laying conduit and wire, before stopping for the day. Lisch will finish up and Kootenai Electric Cooperative will inspect their work tomorrow. The excavation is drying quickly, and concrete could be formed and poured by close of business Thursday. Moving right along.

Some day, Mt. Dirt will be nothing more than backfill.

Hoya Saxa

Wednesday was a really busy day for house-building preparation. Kootenai Electric Cooperative swung by early, about 7:15 a.m., to disconnect our electricity so Spokane Rock Products' dump trucks could bring in 29 tons of gravel to strengthen the culvert over Cable Creek and build a sweeping connector from the county road to our driveway, skirting three large sentinel trees flanking the head of the drive. I was surprised that the process of disconnecting power was so quick and easy - no more than 15 minutes. Since I had no notion of how long the power would be off, I'd packed some freezer packs around my insulin in the refrigerator. Three hours later, my meds were still cold, and the food was still safe to eat.


The gravel dump was scheduled for 8 a.m. At 7:30, our construction manager came out to emplace a Stratford building sign at the head of our driveway. At first glance,  a neighbor could have confused it for a realtor's sign, but it includes our construction address. 


Spokane Rock Products arrived a bit before 8 with a dump truck and trailer, one filled with 5/8" gravel and a trailer with 1 1/4" stone. With the electric power line down, the dump truck was able to raise its bed and spill its load on the culvert - 10" deep, 12 feet on either side of the culvert's center line. Then, as the gravel supervisor, our construction manager, and I worked with shovels and rakes to spread the gravel on the culvert, the dump truck went out to the county road to load up more gravel for the sweeping connector. Seventeen tons was not enough, so he went back to the pit in nearby Pleasentview to pick up another 52 tons to build up the connector. To appropriate the Georgetown University cheer, Hoya Saxa - What Rocks!


While the gravel was being dumped, out friend and neighbor, Leon Hardy, pulled up and offered to bring his tractor down Saturday morning to spread out the gravel in the connector. More friends with tractors. You've got to love it.


Power reconnected, a hot cup of tea went down well.


Next up - excavation. Stay tuned.

Friends With Tractors

It's been a busy couple of days here in Shenanigan Valley, getting ready for the excavation work on our new house. I already blogged about the easy process of getting the foundation staked on Thursday morning. That afternoon, I met with a sales rep from Spokane Rock Products about delivering gravel to strengthen the culvert over Cable Creek and building up a ramp from the county road to our driveway, bypassing the sentinel pine trees guarding the driveway entrance. Next Wednesday morning, a dump truck and trailer will deliver and spread 24 tons of gravel, half on the culvert (5/8" for those of you deeply into grades of gravel) and half off the county road to the driveway (1 1/4"). But, before the dump truck can do its thing - dumping - Kootenai Electric Cooperative, our service provider, will have to disconnect the power line from the county road to the house, since it hangs right over the length of the driveway, too low for the truck to raise its dump bed. After the dump, they'll reconnect the power, all at no cost. The big cost of providing power to our building site (about $11,400) is a bit further down the process.

This afternoon, our good friend and neighbor Dave Pielaet came over with his old Ford tractor to finish the prep work for the gravel delivery. He hooked a logging chain to the front-end loader and pulled out the old gate posts, from which I'd already chain-sawed the gates. Then, using the rear-mounted blade, he leveled the berm that had built up between the county road and our property from years of road grading, providing a smooth entry way for the gravel truck and, within a couple of weeks, a backhoe and concrete pumper. It's good to have friends with tractors.