Stage 1, Step 3: House Site Fill

Photo copyright Aji, 2015; all rights reserved.

Only a few photos tonight, in part because we are both beat.

No work on the house project per se for the lat two days; we were in a holding pattern awaiting delivery of the site fill for the house itself. And frankly happy for the break.

Not that it was a real break, you understand: We spent several hours yesterday moving all of the fixtures and inventory back into the gallery (and, yes, I still need to unpack it all and put it out for display). A good hour-plus was spent on one shelving unit: It's longer than the short walls of the gallery building, and since one of the long walls contains the front door, that means there is no choice but to put it at the back wall. It's home-made (by Wings himself, natch), huge, and hugely heavy, to say nothing of frigging awkward, and we have moved that damn unit more times over the years than I can count. I seriously hope this is the last time.

My shoulders and arms are screaming at me. Yes, it really did take that long, with multiple tries while we jockeyed it inch by inch.

So it was a good thing that Wings had rescheduled this morning's fill delivery from 7:30 AM to 11 AM. Well, except for the fact that they didn't show up until just after 12, but who's counting?

So the photo above is the house site. I took that a little after 10 this morning, when it was still bright and sunny and all the clouds were high and white and thin. That's the spot where our old house used to be, the one that was, quite literally, pulled out from under us.

I'm glad we made them work for every goddamn inch.

Photo copyright Aji, 2015; all rights reserved.

This is a foreshortened view, one that includes the deck that still stands. Wings built that himself, years ago, when the old manufactured home was first delivered. The finance company's movers were informed that they were not taking it with them.

It has sat there, lo, these five years now, awaiting a house to abut it again. It's elevated a bit, and the fill is going to bring the house site up more or less even with it, once the foundation's poured (which may be as early as next week, believe it or not, but there are always contingencies, so I'm not carving into any stone tablets). One of the reasons that we need such a large amount of fill is the low-lying nature of the ground. Every irrigation season (and most monsoon seasons, too), it floods, water swirling and rushing through the area on a slight downhill grade. Besides leveling it out, it needs to be filled to prevent the water from cutting rivers through it.

Photo copyright Aji, 2015; all rights reserved.

So, only just over an hour late, our delivery guy shows up. Not his fault, by the way; it seems to have been an issue with how the drivers were scheduled for the day.

At any rate, as you can see from this and the ensuing photos, by then, it has clouded over completely. Twenty to thirty minutes prior, we'd also gotten a few raindrops, and the temperature had dropped by more than ten degrees at this point.  strange when the hottest part of the day is at 10 o'clock in the morning.

Photo copyright Aji, 2015; all rights reserved.

First load.

Wings had ordered four, based on estimates of what the tonnage would look like (and amount to in practical terms). This wound up being substantially larger than what Monday's driver had described.

By the way, this is one of the decent shots. Yes, I mean "decent." I could've posted a couple of others that would've been funnier, with the ham mugging for the camera, but they were also slightly off-color, so I'll keep it clean for now.

Photo copyright Aji, 2015; all rights reserved.

Second load just dropped; Joseph, the driver, is pulling away just out of camera range to the right.

By now, we're beginning to wonder about the feasibility of four loads.

Photo copyright Aji, 2015; all rights reserved.

Third drop.

Wings and I confer while the dump truck was busy doing its thing. He was thinking the same thing I was. He canceled the last load. Besides, if we wind up needing a fourth load, we can always have one more delivered; the price of it will be the same.

I don't think we will. 

Photo copyright Aji, 2015; all rights reserved.

Three loads of fill, deposited on-site. What you're looking at are the tire tracks in the grass from the dump truck; it's a lot of weight.

By now, it was around two o'clock. There was muck duty to finish, a vet phone consult for someone else's horse (yes, ours are all fine, at least to the extent that Cree's forefeet can be called "fine"), relaying the protocol for treating the horse and providing some of the materials needed, numerous other tasks. 

About 3:30, just as Wings was getting ready to head to the clinic to pick up his prescriptions, the final piece of today's agenda fell into place. Lorenzo, his niece's husband, is one of the contractor types who'll be working this job with us, and he has equipment of his own.

Photo copyright Aji, 2015; all rights reserved.

He dropped off his little Bobcat and the augur attachment. He'll be here tomorrow morning to begin grading the site fill. 

We were fortunate; we've saved quite a bit of money already, despite the speed with which everything's progressing. It looks as though we may be able to cover the materials for the foundation (or something close to it). If things go smoothly, that may begin early next week.

For now, there's plenty of prep work to do tomorrow and the next day.



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.