In between the two storms, Cole, Wesley, and I all spent time cutting wood down by the creek. We were having to clear out fallen trees from the February 2009 ice storm so that we could get a small road down there...so we could build the spring house at the most optimum site. Sometimes as I describe the transition of how we got from A to Z, I have to laugh because it reminds me of grade school when we sang that song about under the rock, on the tree, below the sea, and on and on. I sure hope someone reading this remembers that song. Anyway, nothing is as simple as you believe it should be when building in the hollow. One cannot simply BUILD a spring house. First, you have to determine the most optimum site based on where your water is coming from, where you want the water to go to (in my case both to the workshop, the future cabin, and back up to the top of the mountain (Wesley's idea). Then since there was a devastating ice storm last year, you have to beg, pay, etc. people to come down and help you chainsaw, burn, drag, etc. your way to the starting point, and then all the way to the where the spring house needs to be. Sounding pretty easy right? Nope. Then the snow starts...
Ann let me borrow her Stihl chainsaw. Now this is a shameless plug for this chainsaw ~ it is great! Ann's in particular is perfect for a woman since it is lightweight and has an easy start. The young kids in the family love it because they feel comfortable using it....okay, I just went back and read that realizing how it read...by "young" I mean teenagers or those in their 20s (man am I feeling my age:). Anyway, it is a great chainsaw. I will have to do a whole post at some point on the ice storm with before and after photos. It is amazing the damage. Everyone that was impacted always believes their land got hit the worst, and I am no exception. My hollow was devastated, and it will literally take me years to clean it up to a point that it looks "normal".
So me and my partners in crime are working down the creek from the workshop prepping and clearing the area for the spring house. Steve and his crew are working on the roof. The workshop really begins to take shape right before me...the dreams and the reality slowly blending into a single, solitary view right in front of me. I am amazed.
One final note about the snow...the difference between a good GC and a less than good one....snow didn't slow them down as much as I thought because my GC took the dozer, bladed off the road, and they went to work clearing the snow off the partial roof so that it could start drying immediately. Unfortunately, he bladed right over the snow angels Wesley and I made when we huffed it down to the bottom to get the chainsaws out of the snow (don't tell Ann).
The deck is on too. Steve had a great idea and we are using cedar for the rafters on the overhang above the deck. When sitting out on the deck and you look up, you will be able to look through the rafters to the metal roof. :)
Work must go on...
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