August 2008 Archives

My brother's wife's uncle Lonnie ran the machine for this dig and I did the layout, smoothing, trimming and grading.  I did run the machine a little, which wasn't too hard to do, except for the extreme heat and sheer boredom of it, but Lonnie has done this kind of work his whole life and was much faster and more innovative than I.  He did some things with the machine I would have never thought of.  I'd like to say we enjoyed this but it was projected to take a weekend and ended up taking a full 7 days, due to the hardness of the soil at depth.  A good lesson for you kids, don't burn your bridges with these older folks, they have a lot of experience and know-how!

I should have some road base delivered this week and start building the pad up and leveling it.  Road base is a mixture of limestone, clay and sand.  It packs down hard and level with a vibrating machine and provides good structural support for the concrete pad.  I'll go around the perimeter of each of the squares you see above with road base in sand bags and fill in the middle, level and tamp.  I'll put some loose road base in the beams to pack them down and make them level and solid, too.

My wife's grandmother (Nan) passed away recently... her family gathered last week to pay their respects and say goodbye.  Unfortunately I was not able to be with them but my heart and prayers go out to them.

Also, tragically, last Thursday a good friend, Björn Enderle, was killed in a motorcycle accident.  Björn had just e-mailed me last month to ask me how Rhonda and I were.  He leaves behind his beautiful wife and son, Anja and Linus, parents, Moni and Volker, and brother, Sibo, as well as many, many dear friends.  Björn was young and as full of life as anyone I have ever known and it is with the most profound sadness that we express our deepest and most sincere sympathy and prayers for Anja, Linus, family and friends.

This is a view of the north-south path through our woods (to yet be named something like 'The Rhonda Woodlands" or perhaps something less esoteric, as only the Welsh would get it, like "the Jungle" or "the Eastern Wood" or even "East Wood"?).  Yes, you may submit your suggestions, but please keep it clean because my Mom reads this too.

The reason the paths were cleared was for a seismic survey that I posted about previously.  The contractors came out this afternoon and cleared this trail, which will be great for walks, hunting or dirt-bikes.  They're coming back out tomorrow to finish up an will cut a special trail just for me from the homesite out to the southeast corner (if you look at the aerial view that corner appears to be cleared and could make a nice vineyard or garden).  I'll have to clean them up a bit but the major portion has been completed.  Below are some more photos of the path.  You can see it's not straight, nor level - great for dirt-bike trail riding.  It pops out at the north end of the property near the gulleys, another great place to ride the bikes!  Can't wait!

Just click on the image to make it HUGE!  Remember, this will look better after it gets cleaned up.

Chase is growing fast and recovering from a nasty case of mites.  Should be right as rain in a few weeks, I'll post a new photo of him then, he looks a bit scruffy right now.  Buster has recovered fully from his surgery and can't wait to move to the ranch.  Really, just ask him.  It's really hot here today, 103ºF (39.5ºC) and both dogs are enjoying an air-conditioned corner of the house.

Rhonda and I both agree that we actually miss England.  Shocking but true.  We were both very happy there and miss all of our dear friends.  Sure, we'll make new ones and yes, it's good to see the family but we often think of, and miss our good friends in the U.K.  Cheers everyone!  Hope you are all "all right"!