Rain Rain Rain

It has been raining almost every day during the month of September.  The contrast in the land from a few short weeks ago has been striking. (see post of 13 Aug) The rain has washed out sections of our new roads and made excavation of the building site virtually impossible.  We were hoping to have the site excavated by the end of September but now it looks like we will be delayed at least four weeks, and that assumes the rains do not continue into October.  Even once it stops raining we will not be able to immediately resume excavations because the mud will take a while to dry up.  We will hope for the best and continue when we can.  The video below shows the stream on our land.  A few weeks ago it was dry without a trace of water in it.

A New Generator

The Honda generator (seen in my post of 10 Aug 2011) was actually purchased as an emergency backup power source for our domicile in Northern Virginia.  I have been wanting to buy something else for West Virginia and now I have finally got around to it.  I got a good deal on a 3500 Watt Champion generator at Camping World in Winchester.  It has the same power output as the Honda but is a bit noisier.  To compensate for the decibel level, we decided to give it its own little spot 150 feet from the trailer.  I built up a little level pad site for it along side of the road and constructed an A-frame tarp cover to put over it.  It is far enough away that the sound level is acceptable and we don't have to bring it under the awning of the trailer every time it rains.  And we can bring the Honda generator back home.

The new generator in its new home.

The generator looking very cozy under its tarp.

A Pastoral Morning

We have had some grey and rainy days of late but this morning was exceptionally nice.

Morning sunlight filtering through the trees on a location on our land with a southern exposure.

The reflection of the treetops in the still water of our stream.

Excavation Begins

For three months we have been cutting down trees, clearing brush, and preparing roads to our building site.  We have had delays due to weather, first the excessive heat and dryness of mid-summer and more recently the onset of autumn rains.  We have had to alter our site plan several times due to uncertainties about where we can locate things such as the septic system and the well and we have had our share of equipment breakdowns to delay us further.  But now we are ready to commence the excavation of the first building site.  We have a lot of dirt to move.  We don't know exactly how long it will take and we are hoping that we don't encounter some obstacle like a huge rock we can't move.  It will take hundreds of bucketfuls of dirt but the process has begun.

The first scoop

Job Box on Site

I bought a big 3068 job box by Knaack to solve some of our tool storage problems at the build site.  I probably should have done this three months ago as we have had a storage problem from the outset of our project.  Better late than never though.  We now look like very official construction nerds with our job box.

I bought the job box in Alexandria, Virginia and hauled it out to WV on my trailer.

It's heavy, about 200 lbs (90 kg), so it is good to have a tractor with pallet forks to move it. 

Empty or filled with tools, no one is likely to run away with it.

Fixing the B21 (again)

Our old Kubota B21 is a great workhorse.  Like any machine that is worked hard, it will occasionally need repair.  It died on us a few days ago and Nick traced the problem to a failed fuel cutoff solenoid.  To stop a diesel engine, you interrupt the flow of fuel.  This can also stop a gas engine but usually the electric spark can be interrupted to stop the engine.  There is no electric spark in a diesel so the fuel cutoff is all you got.  On some older machines this was done mechanically with a lever operated valve.  On our tractor they got fancy and used an electrically powered solenoid.  If the solenoid fails, however, there is never any fuel to the engine so it doesn't run.  We bought a new solenoid valve, installed it, and we were back in business at a cost of $135.

This was the culprit.

Back in business moving dirt.

Spotty Amphibian

Kathryn found this salamander and put him in a 5 gallon bucket.  He didn't like being there very much and proceeded immediately to escape.  After a brief photo shoot we let him go in a safe place.  He didn't demand any residuals.

Climbing to freedom.

Where's Super Ted?