In previous posts I described the process (and hassle) of cleaning out the pipes which the crossing is built on. Since doing that, the pictures nearby represent the highest the creek has gotten since then. In point of fact, in spite of all the rain, the crossing itself has never been covered. PTL! Hopefully, this record will continue as we build the house … unless we really get some rain.
The lady of our future home has been a vital part of everything from the beginning … even when Ted was musing about building a rammed earth home (another story) back in the mid-80s! Now that we’re on our way, Beth’s new assistant is Ginny, our faithful Australian shepherd mix. Here’s Ginny explaining to Beth how to pound in a corner stake just the right way … 🙂
After roughly 10 tries last week, we found an excavator with a claw (the grabber thing above the bucket in the picture). It got the crossing cleaned out! Since then, the creek has been happy, and we’re moving forward… Notice the large rocks in the picture of the crossing. Some of them are too big for 2 men to lift! Hopefully, the creek will go around them now and will stay off the far edges of the concrete. We will eventually need to modify the intake pipes so less debris will be caught in them, and more will flow over the top. In the meantime, you-know-who (aka, the builder – aka, not the builder’s wife) will be getting down in the creek and cleaning out debris by hand so as to avoid renting another Bobcat.
UPDATE on 4/24
The creek did get over the crossing, and the riprap in the picture did it’s job. There are a few logs here and there, but TT just got a new chainsaw so … [sound of chainsaw revving … 😀 ]
A friend recently asked me, “What’s a highlift?” Behold…
Our driveway, it turns out, needed to go right through a place where this huge, dead oak tree was standing. We got a bid of $800 to drop it, but then Drew, our UBuildIt guru, said one of his operators could just push it over. So — that’s what happened! Note the size of the trunk. Wish I had been there at the time, because it must have been quite a show.
Highlifts can do some amazing things…
…with a backhoe attached to it. That’s because the creek keeps cutting the ends of our crossing out every time the water gets high,
and before we can fix it we need the culverts cleared of debris. See? We think a claw on a backhoe for an hour or so will get all the logs & stumps picked up and dumped on the other side, where the creek itself will wash them away. Here are the stumps and things that need to be moved. Know anyone with a claw on the end of a backhoe? 
If so, leave a comment on this post… thanks!
Weather (wet) and paperwork (govt.) have combined, and we have missed our goal… but we’ll keep at it. In the meantime, here’s our site plan. Notice the shaded area around the creek at the upper part of the diagram – it’s a big floodplain. That means the Army Corp of Engineers is very interested in what happens there. I had a friend tell me he built a dam across the same creek (further upstream) and the ACOE apparently saw it on an aerial map and paid him a visit. It worked out, but … we don’t really own that land – the Army Corp. does. But we pay the taxes. Sigh…
…here we go! As one might note from previous posts, our progress since 2007 has been somewhat uncertain. The 2008 financial meltdown, family and business issues and the general rush of life have meant that now, finally, we’re on the way! Won’t you join us? Please subscribe (send a note to Help@ChenowethEast.com), or just check back periodically to see the progress. Our next goal is coming right up — to be “dig ready” (foundation) by March 15th.
We are very pleased; Paul Clifford Construction did an excellent job, at a reasonable price.
We finally have a picture:
