I Think Summer is over...

It didn't even come close to starting :(
I blasted my way back in my truck, but, in the half hour I spent trying to get the backhoe started, another 3 inches of snow fell. I BARELY got out of there! I guess I'll have to fire up the generator and hook up a block heater...

I saw this on the way :-)

Great weather for a drive...
I was pushing snow with my bumper all the way down Babcock Road... Boy If you thought is was quite in the summer ;-) No Deer tracks at all?

My lumber pile is dry, but I can tell I need to keep it clean...

No more sunlight after work!

My little SONY digital doesn't like working at night, but I finally got some exposures (with the help of photoshop).
The generator works great. In fact, it's going on 15 hours on the first tank of fuel :-) Granted, it has only been running lights, but I can't imagine a gas generator would last this long :-)

Water!

Well( no pun intended), we pulled the pump and hose from brothers old well Saturday. After figuring out how the connection worked it was trivial. Transferred everything to my property and everthing worked :-)

The Pump...

The hose, electrical, and pull rope...

With hose attached and ready to be submerged...

WATER!

Final version of the garage plans... maybe.

The lights in these pictures will actually be fluorescent, but "3D home architect" only has track lights :-)

"Green" Tree House, er uh... I mean Stand

This is a tree stand built, by Hovak and friends, from "scraps" I had left over after cutting the boards for the garage. Crooked, wet, undersized, with bark... PERFECT!

Old Jed's a millionaire

Water Found!

82 feet deep @ 15 Gallons Per Minute :-)

Water Soon

Well, the well guy showed up today. I should have water soon, hopefully very soon $$$ :(



Notice the ladder in the last shot. I couldn't resist a few aerial photos. Let me tell you it's higher that it looks!

The first picture shows the approximate location of the house. The area above the backhow needs to be cleared for the garage and leech field.



The trees on the ground were all dropped by Dave so that I could have a little sun, although the moon rises have been pretty nice too. I should probably clean up those trees before the snow falls :(

Trusses for my 28 x 60 garage

Well after many nights reading the New York State code requirements, tons of calcuations, and numerous discussions with my architect, I have come to the realization that I cannot cut my own wood for the roof. Being in the Tug Hill region means that my roof must support 70lbs per sq foot of snow! I would have to cut monsterous rafters, or put in supporting posts all over the place. So... I made the call to the truss engineers and ordered 44 scissor trusses. This will give 12+ foot high ceilings in the middle of the shop and no center supporting beams. Is the garage excessive, yes, but it will also serve as my apartment as I build the main house. The bedroom will make a nice wood shop or spray booth down the road. I wonder if anyone else has 240v outlets in the bedroom :)

Generator

No word from Niagra Mohawk Power Company yet, so I got on ebay and picked up a generator.

Katrina

Well hurricane Katrina provided the most rain I've see so far since I bought the property. Everything looked good except the low part of the driveway. I had planned on a culvert and a couple a feet of fill to raise the driveway through this low part, I just haven't got around to it yet :-(

Utility Vehicle

A must for 40 acres...
I have been able to get to the back of the property and grab some nice timber with minimal impact..

Wood Mill

Well, I figured it was time to cut some wood. If I cut it now, it can dry while I put in the septic and build the foundation and slab for the garage. Since I will living in the garage while I build the main house (shhh, don't tell the inspector), I decided to cut 2x6's fro the outside walls. That way I can put in more insulation.
New Mill.


The log pile from the area cleare for th driveway. Unfortunately many of these logs came from low, wet, land and the centers were rotten.
However there are a few good ones...



15 2x4's from one medium sized log, :)

A;most all of the 2x6's I need. I stil need some 2x4's for the inside walls.

Labor laws... BAH!

Left to Right: Austin, Triston, Tyler, Froggy

Backhoe

Well after getting some ridiculous quotes for a driveway, I decided to build my own. Even though the ideal tool for building a driveway is a dozer, I decided a backhoe/loader will be a more usefull piece of equipment. After all I still need to dig a 1200 foot trench to run power. I can come up with some more justifications if you really need them :)

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Backhoe Practice

Well, like I said the partial clearing was to close to the property lines to build on, but it looked like a good place to stage the construction and practice using a backhoe...

House Location

The snow melted, and it was time to figure out where to put the house. This spot was mostly cleared, but it was too close the bordering property, and as far as I was concerned, to close to the road. So I headed deeper into the woods...














This was the closest thing I had to a hill on the property so I made the decision to build here.
There was even an old logging trail that looke like a good start to a driveway. The only problem is that the driveway would have to be about 1200 feet long! " Hmmmm I wonder how much the driveway will cost, or how much it will cost to run power back that far?" ( keep in mind I also have to run power 1/4 mile down the road too!

Spring Thaw

Wel the snow has melted, or most of it and, I was able to find all of the survey stakes marking off the 42+ acres.

Hmmm, I wonder if this is the wettest part?
Oh well, I made an offer and they excepted :-)

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The Beginning

This is sort of a post-diary but anyway...
Towards the end of winter, in 2005, I noticed a "For Sale by Owner" sign in the middle of nowhere. It was the southern edge of the Tugg Hill plateau, but fortunately there hadn't been much snow this year and I was able to walk the property without snow shoes. Only 1/2 hour from work, but it felt like I was in the Adirondack mountains.

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