Chris and I made a trip up in April to put in some plants and a few other things but progress had been slow over the last few months. We just got back from a pretty great weekend at the land. A lot of discussion about the "real" cabin, water, electric, septic....the next steps.
It was hot this weekend, but we had a great time. The big project was getting the backhoe up to the land from Chris's backyard. It took us an hour or two, and wasn't easy, but we were able to load it onto the rented U-Haul and head out by about 9:30 Saturday morning. This was a major success for us and once at the land, we unloaded it and then attached it to our tractor (not without some trouble removing bolts though and spending way too much time on our backs under the tractor).
I practiced using the tractor a little and moved a few buckets full of mulch to behind the cabin. Chris worked on digging out the trench behind the cabin while I re-mulched the lookout spot and then spread the mulch behind the cabin. I then did my best cutting up downed trees in an effort to make a bridge for the ATV across the bigger trench. I got pretty close to finishing it too, just forgot to take a picture.
We met with Todd (our tree guy) and a local electrician in preparation for our last (and biggest) clearing to date and also putting in electric. We're clearing out a ton of trees and the space that will be left for the future cabin will be huge when it's all cleared! It's exciting! The clearing and electric could be done as early as mid-August. From there, progress can really be made as we're talking about putting in the well and even getting septic designs, etc. Chris has spoken to a local timber framer about the future cabin and they have exchanged pictures, ideas and even some preliminary money figures. It's exciting that we're moving closer to what we've been building toward for so long.
We finished early Saturday night and drove to NH for some fireworks (buy one, get two free) and then visited an old favorite for dinner, The New England House. It was incredibly foggy Saturday night as the view from Hogback Mountain wasn't more than 50 feet. We both slept well that night, that's for sure.
On Sunday we went to the flea market in hopes of finding an old school push lawnmower but were unsuccessful (except for the awesome chili plant we took home). We also paid a visit to Lisa, who informed us she may have a buyer for her coffeehouse that she has been trying to sell. It's sad that she's selling but also happy that she's moving on.
Last winter, Chris bought a snowmobile and trailer from a local guy in town. It's been 8 months and we still never took the trailer, so we tried loading the snowmobile trailer into the rented U-Haul trailer but completely failed. The trailer will have to wait a few more months I guess. We did get a good picture of a local barn next door though that sort of has the look of the future cabin we are planning to build.
Chris and I spent the last few hours Sunday tag teaming the tractor, him on the bucket and me on the actual tractor. We were able to make progress on the trench but met our match when we came across some pretty large boulders. We pushed the backhoe to its limit, that's for sure!
Hopefully another trip up is in the cards for us this summer. There's always work to be done and the list is always growing but it remains exciting, interesting and fun.
