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The Next Chapter in the Story of Our House

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8 February

Broke ground. Also broke a backhoe. Josh, Mikey, and I took down the cedar tree after clearing some landscaping items from the new foundation area. "3 men and 1 chainsaw in 10 minutes took down 50 years of nature", says Josh. Guess the tree took offense, as the stump defied the might of those same 3 men, their chainsaw, a pickup truck, several chains and ropes, and a backhoe that used to have a chain-hook welded to the bucket but now has an oddly shaped "L"-looking-thing welded to the bucket compliments of one stubborn stump. Well, we were proud of ourselves for a while, anyway, and we've got the piece of wood with Josh's words on it that we all signed to prove it.

9 February

The fall of the stump--One man, one backhoe, patience and logic. Did some grading, discovered around 4:45 in the afternoon that the main fresh water feed from the meter had rusted and dissolved at some point, and the bricks, mortar, and mud around it where keeping the water pressure back. Well, that is, they were until I reached down and pulled out a brick. Then they weren't keeping anything back. I shut off the water, figured out what was going on, called Mikey to run my approach by him, and headed for Lowe's. It took almost two hours, but problem solved. Dad called a little while later--first words out of his mouth were "What did you break?". Gee, such support.