Five weeks in

Hi All,
Heavy equipment has been working around here for five weeks now. We're getting close to moving on to the next phase. I hope!

Lots has happened. Both dams have been repaired, four culverts have been installed, a right of way for power poles is cleared (we considered solar power but got less than stellar response from the company we contacted), the power line we had to provide has been buried, the bridge is coming along and the driveway is starting to be cleared and covered in gravel. That's just what David Shelton and his crew has done. I'm not sure what Susan and I have been doing but I know we're busy every day and exhausted every night. Well, we have had multiple meetings with the electric company to figure out how to get power to the home site, have also met with an electrician, a water well drilling company, a guy to install the septic tank, worked with a designer on the house plan (picked up a set of construction blue prints today!), met with a guy for a bid on pouring the concrete foundation, placed 30 railroad ties (man those puppies are heavy! Thanks to our neighbor Kirby and his son Michael for their help) for the raised bed vegetable garden and moved one round bale of moldy hay and 13 tractor bucket loads of horse manure from the horse farm three doors down. Whew! No wonder we're tired. And throw in three days tearing the roof off the crack house and then putting a new one on (thanks for all the help from my son Cody!).

Removing old shingles

What we found under the shingles

Maybe we could just call it a skylight and leave it at that

Finished product

Susan and I agree, we don't want to make a living roofing houses. And this little house shouldn't have been a great feat.

But lest you think our life is all work, work, work, we took a week off to volunteer at the US Grand Prix (Formula 1 race at the Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas). After the race we spent a couple of days in Junction and Mason seeing friends there. We were already practically in the neighborhood. Our long weekend (Thursday through Monday) at the race track was really cool. Our jobs were anything but glamorous but it was cool being that close to the inner workings of putting on an international event. Saturday night we escaped from the track to have dinner and country dance lessons with my son Shaun and his family. I actually think I might try dancing again!

If you're interested, our  jobs at the race were to check in the volunteer track marshals (somewhere between 200 and 300 people from around the world), check out radios and headsets to them, and then check them back in at the end of every day. The marshals went out to the track about 7:30 every morning and didn't leave their post until around 5:00 every evening. Our other job was to deliver water, powerade, ice and lunches to them throughout the day which also meant we were sometimes on the track and most of the time right over the wall from the track- a view most people don't get. For a racing fan like me, it was great! We enjoyed it so much we're going back this weekend to volunteer for a 24 hour race.

When wearing a tabbard like this, security just waves you through

Supporting the marshals, we were able to go on the "Marshals Pit Walk" Friday night. Lewis Hamilton's crew working on his car. The ultimate winner of the race and now world champion (fourth).

Vettel's pit. Second in the race and second in the championship.

Pit Lane

We just happend to take a break to check out the track at the same time the F1 cars were making their first lap.

I'll leave you with a picture of our pond from last week.

That's it for now. Take care.
Brian