. . . he's still going:
He added drainage around the edge of the steps and along the side of the driveway just passed the parking area. He laid this new stuff in the narrow ditch ( last year for an amazing deal, he found a 12 inch wide bucket for the back hoe) that is supossed to carry away more water than a 4 inch pipe:
It's starting to look sort of spiffy up here.
He has created a wall at the point of the tear drop that will be formed when the driveway to the future big house goes in to the right where the tractor is sitting. The road to the arena and eventual barn is to the left. I am standing on the cabin deck using the zoom to eat up the distance.
He has dug a ditch and is lining it with rocks to slow heavy rain down.This is looking up at his new wall from the driveway. Then looking down from the same point:
He also found vehicle 2 of 3: a little Nissan for $2,200. It is a whole lot 'tinny-er' than the Toyota and has some rust happening here and there. But, it is 4 wheel drive, running well, and the price was right. The money for vehicle 3 of 3 has evaporated from the bill paying pool puddle. So that will longer in coming.
And LOOK, he added steps to the deck that he made several weeks ago (before he got side tracked with moving dirt and stumps and building a rock wall, and making a ditch). Dan always needs a variety of ongoing projects to hop back and forth to and from. He's always busy!
Now we have a little more room for our Grain Room / wood working shop / storage area. What a cluster! I bet with some rearranging it wouldn't need to be quite so ugly-ish! The down fall of being is such cramped quarters and having so much to do. Oh Now what on earth is Dan up to in that photo BTW? He is pulling out the old temporary makeshift posts that held the deck up since the cabin was first hauled up on top of Lythos. It is now sitting on the real footings.
Remember way back then nearly 2 years ago:
Here are a couple of links to more of the story if you haven't been around that long or maybe just want to reminisce. I don't get the urge to much yet! I'm still in the midst of it after 2 years! Still dreaming of the day when I can start to actually think about beautifying a home--if you know what I mean--like not just making do-like --like--LIKE UNPACKING! I can't wait for unpacking. But realistically there is no place to do that till we have the big house. I hope I remember how to comfy a home!
$2,500.00 plus tax etc. It just came home this afternoon and it is all ready loaded up with stumps. The giant stump pile is going away, Yippee!
You can see the edge of the sand ramp Dan built to load the stumps in the dump truck. He made it with six jersy barriers which he lined with plastic to kep the sand in it, and then added sand.
He will take away a load every day until, wah lah there are no more stumps! It's pretty exciting stuff!
The price we were quoted to have them hauled away was $3,500.00. And the dump truck will be used a lot for a long time--like all the gravel I will need on the little carriage trail.
Dan is making a stump grinder. Here is a Video of a stump grinder in action.
"Our you going to take a picture of me making the stump grinder?"
"You're making the stump grinder, right now?"
"I'm drilling a hole."
"You want me to take a picture of you drilling a hole?"
"Yeah"
"Do you have the teeth out there yet?"
"No."
I still had to fill a water tub, so by the time I finished he was getting the the teeth out. So I took a picture:
Aren't you Glad I waited for the teeth?
We are still driving that enormous GMC and feeding $89. a week in gas. Toyota picks up the tab for the rental fee, but we pay $20.. a day for walk away insurance--a good thing too because one of Dan's customers backed into it the first week and made a mess of the front quarter.
Anyway . . . the dealership lost our paper work so the process was delayed a week. Then they failed to verify address--they had the Standish address so letters came back to them. Another week and half lost. 40 days later we just got the registered letter in the mail: $11,900.00 for the 1997 Tacoma with the busted frame due to excessive rust, will be paid in 10 days. That old truck worked very hard for 11 years. Boy oh boy I still can't believe it! We couldn't have gotten $1000. for it on the side of the road. But we wouldn't have been complaining about how well it held up either.
Dan has been hard at work finding a BIG dump truck, a pick-up with 3 years left on it, and something with a roof for me to drive to work for a couple of years, all for 11,900. He thinks he's close to pulling it off. I'll keep you posted.
I know I said Dan's pages were moving, but they really haven't. He would kind of like them to stay in RPF, so they may. I need to do a better job of keeping them up to date for sure. But he is just so stinking busy with D & E Enterprises stuff, and we are holding our breath waiting to see if the town of Hollis will let us build commercial fishing nets at the base of Lythos--or if the paid for building waiting to go up will just be a big blue garage / hay storage unit-- that we scarcely dare breath of word of it for fear of jinxing anything!
Our rather spent 1997 Tacoma failed the frame inspection at Portland Toyota on Friday. Toyota will give up approximately $12,000.00 for it. $13,000.00 if we buy a new Toyota from Portland Toyota. We can't take on a payment right now. Especially after just selling my wonderful Prius to get out of a payment. we are looking for something used. we have a humongous GMC Sierra 4-door to drive around till we get the payment for the Tacoma. I am in Love! If they could figure out how to run one of these without harming the earth and at a reasonable price-I'd drive nothing but. It is amazing. You can hardly feel the pot holes, and the power? It could haul two horses without waking up! And it holds so much stuff!!
Dan got started on the guard rails this past weekend. They of course will not stay this tall. It will take 58 of these 6 x 6 pressure treated posts to line the dangerous drop-offs along alternating sides of the driveway as it snakes down the hill. The driveway held up remarkable well this winter. But we have not had a heavy rain yet either. We actually need some rain bad right now. NOAA has issued a Fire Weather Watch. I can't remember having ever seen such a thing.
Along with a bunch of other Lithos related stuff. I know a lot of you come just for Dans happenings and progress reports on the non horsey dimension. So I'm creating a separate site for those. There is stuff going on with Dan and updates will be forthcoming before April is gone! I will give you a link as soon as I'm ready with the new site.
Picture from todays Portland Press Herald. As most of you know Dan makes most of his living from building nets, sweeps, roller frames, and supplying wire and, hardware to the fishing fleet in Portland. These past couple years have been rough as the number of days a vessel can fish continue to be cut each year. It isn't likely to get much better. Another issue has been the Lobster debate. It is illegal to bring lobster a shore in Maine if it was caught in a fishing trawl (net). With so Little fishing time allowed each boat, the catch of lobster becomes more important to the fisherman's livelihood. This means that they will unload and sell all fish in Massachusetts because they can sell their lobsters there as well. One of our best customers who once apon a time spent six figures supplying his boats through us yearly now ties up in MA. and no longer calls Portland home after more than 30 years of fishing out of this Maine port. The latest in the on going saga is the debate over a plan to implement a federal buy out of some of the fleet. Here is the story:
It snowed again new years day and into the night. It was mild, aound 25 F. We got another 8 inches or so. It sure was pretty. Dan could not get the tractor up the driveway still though from the last storm. But yesterday he found chains for the tires for 250.00 (Half what new ones were going to be). Last night as the temp dropped down from 17 F at 7 PM to 0 by 10PM Dan got the chains on and moved a lot of snow! He is amazing.
Wednesday morning I got my little car shoveled out and went to work.
Hay to Rescues
Recent Comments