Stage 1: First Pit Run (for Gallery Move and House Site Clearance)

Photo copyright Aji, 2015; all rights reserved.

This is where our house used to sit. It's hard to get a sense of size from this perspective, but what you're looking at is the entire site, complete with red willow hedge to the left, hand-built deck in the foreground (they'd've taken that if they thought they could get away with it), and the little portable building that currently serves as the gallery. In the back to the left is the RV (our "home" for the last five years); to the right are the plumbers' trucks, hard at work on the well pump. It's fixed, by the way, and we have full water pressure and nice clear water again. Also a working sensor, so that I don't have to reload the tank manually a dozen times a day.

Below, some of what we did today. I'm beat, but the guy will be here with the crane at 8:30 AM to move the gallery, so no rest for the weary. Or wicked. Or something.

Now, this: 

Photo copyright Aji, 2015; all rights reserved.

This is what remains of the traces of the fire, post-cleanup. The fire was on September 11th (what is it about that date?), which is what prompted us, finally, to do this. What you don't see? Directly above is the set of jalousie windows next to the couch, where I sit to do my work . . . and where I was sitting when it occurred. 

Why we're so lucky? This:

Photo copyright Aji, 2015; all rights reserved.

That is the live propane tank that fuels the space heater. Directly beneath the window where I sat. One of three live propane tanks, actually, all of which would've gone up in one massive fireball had we not caught it literally just in time.

On to less terrifying things:

Photo copyright Aji, 2015; all rights reserved.

This is the "gallery," sitting at the northeast corner of the house site. We elected to put it there when the building was given to us, because at that point, there seemed no hope of building a home again, and it made sense to put it right next to the electrical hook-ups, which are just behind it to the right.

Now, though, we'll need that space, and so the gallery is moving to the spot where I initially wanted to put it:

Photo copyright Aji, 2015; all rights reserved.

It's going in this space, between the driveway and the section of fence with the tall latilla pole at the end. This is what that space looked like at 9:00 this morning (as it's looked for years).

An couple of hours later:

Photo copyright Aji, 2015; all rights reserved.

That's the first run of gravel, what they used to call "pit run," but I guess has now been upgraded in nomenclature to "base course." At any rate, they were open, they had it, they could deliver. Holiday, schmoliday.

Once dropped, it looked like this:

Photo copyright Aji, 2015; all rights reserved.

We'll be having about five times that amount delivered to the house site in the first photo up at the top, we hope by the end of the week. We'll need it; there's a slight grade heading downhill from northeast to southwest, and during irrigation season (and occasionally, monsoon season), the area tends to flood.

Of course, it needed to be leveled:

Photo copyright Aji, 2015; all rights reserved.

That's Wings on the ATV, Daniel with shovel in hand, Griffin supervising. 

Once they had it mostly flat, it was time to get serious about this leveling business:

Photo copyright Aji, 2015; all rights reserved.

This is the old way of doing it, using an exceptionally straight two-by-four to even it out by hand:

Photo copyright Aji, 2015; all rights reserved.

You can see the ridges and gaps. They evened them out completely:

Photo copyright Aji, 2015; all rights reserved.

And after an enormous amount of hard work by both of them, this is what we had:

Photo copyright Aji, 2015; all rights reserved.

It's been flattened, leveled, soaked, and tamped.

Tomorrow morning, that gallery will be placed here.

And then, it'll be time to prep the house site.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2015; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.