Building a Driveway – Part 4

Building a Driveway – Part 4

Rain as been abundant early this winter and caused a delay in the machine work needed to get the driveway done. The contractor had wanted to get it done before Christmas, but 12 straight days of precipitation prevented that from happening. This past Monday I got a call and was informed that they were loading up the trucks and heading out to the farm to get started. I was able to take a half-day off and joined them at about 1 o’clock. The first 20 feet of driveway starting at the road is designed, planned, and inspected by the Department of Transportation. The guys started with that and by the time I arrived, the ditch had been properly routed and the culver (all 24 feet of it) had been put in place. 

We used a local family owned contractor and a father and son worked together to get the job done. By the end of the day, the road entrance was completed. Gravel had been spread and for the first time, we could pull completely off the road onto the property. 

The next day they returned and cut in the remainder of the driveway. This involved de-stumping the cleared area and leveling it to create a usable driving surface. Once complete, they brought in another load of gravel and spread it for us. It looks like we will need about two more loads of gravel to finish the driveway surface but for now, as long as its dry, we can drive all the way down. 

While we had a large machine on the property, we had them remove the very large stumps from the area that our garden is going to be as well as slightly level out the area that the cabin will be built.

 Overall we are very happy with the work that was done. We are also extremely excited to have such a large project done. With a driveway, approved septic plans, and electricity hopefully on the way, the next step should be a building permit for the cabin……..

~Terry

Building an Outhouse

Building an Outhouse

         Happy New Year! The holidays were busy and I have been slack in posting to the blog. There has been great progress made on the farm since I last updated things, but I’ll start with our new outhouse.

         The more time we have spent on the land, the more we realized that we needed an outhouse. A shovel and a tree worked, but is not for the faint of heart. Because we have no electricity on the land, the outhouse had to be designed and constructed in our driveway and then transported out to the farm to be assembled.

         With trees and brush clear, Brandon is able to drive his truck off the road and down into the lower part of our land. On New Years Day, we loaded up the parts and got all of the pieces for the main structure in place. 

        The next day, Julie and I headed out to start building.

         The hole had been dug already so all I needed to do was to level the deck for the outhouse over the hole. Once the deck was in place, the pre-framed walls and seat structure went in quickly. Julie worked on putting in screws while I got the pieces into place. Once the walls were up, we put the siding on to give the walls some stability. Julie had picked out a design for the outhouse that had a small porch and a peaked roof. This made for a much more complicated build but in the end, I’m glad we went with it. From the guys point a view, a simple slanted roof would have been sufficient.

         With the walls in place, the last step was to hang the roof rafters an put the plywood on. 

         I still need to put shingles on the roof and install the door and the windows, but our goal was for a functional outhouse, and we hit our mark. Now on to the next project…….~Terry