Muddy mess

Since we were blessed with such beautiful weather last week, mother nature decided things were going too smoothly.  This week we had a ton of rain and much cooler temperatures, just as we needed to have trenches dug for power, phone, and well pump.  The men have rallied and haven't even slowed their progress due to the weather, despite being covered from head to toe in mud at the end of the day.  I have never seen mud quite like it, it just gets heavier, building up on your boots.  I can't even go into how muddy the dogs were, and our little yurt platform and driveway look like they've been hit by a bomb.  The first job of the week was to run trenches for the water lines going to the frost-free hydrants and the line to the house.

These trenches quickly filled with water due to rain.

Our frost-free hydrants are made in Iowa, my father-in-law will be so proud!

We had to rent this machine to punch down the earth to rebury the pipe.  It was controlled via hand-held remote, which was the talk of the evening.

A very wet Chilko dog, doesn't look too impressed...

Water source!

We've been finding a bunch of giant boulders to use for landscaping and retaining walls in the future.  We are so excited at this prospect as it should save us money in not needing to buy such things.  We are also thrilled by the fact that in the magical land of Montana we have the most beautiful rocks you've ever seen!  Purple, turquoise, golden yellow... Oh, the possibilities!

Once the water lines were in, we had the electric company come in to set the vault for our electrical transformer.  The vault that was our only option, is enormous.  It should be on a block of houses in the suburbs, but they don't carry a smaller size so we have a big one.  The truck that delivered it was having difficulty in all of the mud that was accumulating with each downpour of rain.

Here we have Jardy's machine pulling the truck up the driveway in the mud.  Bottom line:  Jardy is the man to hire for excavating.  Enough said.

Setting the vault.

Chilko found a satisfactory perch to supervise.

Trench for electric and phone running all of the way up the driveway.

Once the big truck was free from the mud, we then needed to run this trench all the way up the driveway to the vault for power and phone.  Again, looking a little like a war zone...

Trench continuing to the vault.

Today all of the conduit was laid, the trench reburied, and now we have a super muddy driveway.  Hopefully getting some gravel put in tomorrow and we are crossing our fingers for a dry weekend.  Considering that this weekend is Memorial Day weekend, I think our wishing will be futile, but there is always next week.

Takin' care of business

Next up:  Building the yurt platform!

Utilities

There are basic comforts in life that make things so much easier from day to day.  Running water, a hot shower, lights turned on by a switch when it gets dark, high speed internet....What did we do before all of these necessary comforts!  Well, I'm sure working harder for those comforts would build character, but when you're looking at two people planning to live in a yurt for a year, maybe they will have their fill of character building scenarios. 
As I'm sure you can guess, our work for the rest of the week was getting power, phone, and well drilled on the new property.  Jardy was back, fast at work digging a trench for the power and phone, and we had our well driller start finding us some water.

                                        fully-dug trench, looking north to building site

                     I'm pretty sure the dogs thought that this was all done just for their entertainment

                                                  Conduit laid for electric and telephone

                                                  The well rigs coming up our road

 The main drilling truck needed to back all of the way up our driveway in order to be in position for the drill sight.  Tanner was rather impressed with the driving.

Drilling in process.  The spray from the truck left some of our trees looking like they belonged in a different season=all frosty!  The drilling of our well took a total of two days.  Our well ended up being 440 feet, which was definitely on the higher end of our budget estimates.  However, we do have a lot of water=60 gallons per minute.  All in all, we are pleased with the work that our driller did, and how fast and efficiently he got it done.

I missed out on all of the action, but came up after work with some dinner.  Soon we'll be in this same location, but inside our yurt having dinner!

 Our well, in a very muddy pool left by drill crew; frosty tree in background

Chilko pup tuckered from all his hard work.  All that watching is exhausting!

Breaking Ground

Early morning May 14, we broke ground on our new property.  When we purchased our property, it came with a lovely driveway that dead-ended at a convenient place just south of what we found to be the ideal building site.  In our planning we decided to continue the driveway along the slope and add a moderate switchback toward the yurt and building sites.  In search of an excavator, we didn't have to look far.  An acquaintance of ours, and my parents' neighbor, a guy named Jardy, owns an excavating business called Rocky Mountain Excavating.  After giving him a tour of our new land and sharing our vision he was full of valuable insight and encouragement for our plans.  We were happy to have him scheduled to be our first hire-out on our big project.

                                   First Break of Ground!!  Cause for celebration :)

Bottom right of this photo is the end of existing driveway, all of the driveway to the left is Jardy's work.  Tanner and I couldn't be happier with the work that he has done.  It is amazing watching him maneuver this machinery, just like a huge hand; brushing away little trees to pick up fallen logs, and when needed, digging into the ground with full force, as if cutting through butter.  Quite impressive. 
The location that we had in mind for the yurt had a cluster of beautiful, young tamarack trees.  Beyond the proposed yurt site was a vast open area, in clear view to the north side neighbor.  We asked Jardy if it would be possible to move the cluster up into the clearing in order to utilize what trees we had.  He obliged, and now we have a pretty little scattering of young trees in the backyard of our yurt platform.

                                     Jardy scooping up a tree.

                                    Transplanted Tamaracks

While we are left with a few burn piles, and some disturbed ground, we are thrilled with our new driveway and yurt platform.

                                 Coming together....

                                Digging the yurt platform, looking east

                                  View of the driveway looking south, from the yurt platform

While this hole in the ground just about gave Tanner an anxiety attack, it sure makes our yurt look like a roomy living space!  We plan to build an enclosed, insulated yurt platform with 7 ft. walls that will work as storage space for tools and excess 'stuff' while we live in the yurt.  The slope of the land allows for some of this space to be 'underground' so that the north side of the yurt will only be a couple of feet off of the ground, while the front will be 7 ft high with the best view.

My furry boys, anxious to show me all they've been helping to accomplish for the day.

In the midst of all of the machine work, Tanner was busy bucking up firewood and taking phone calls to make sure that all of the weeks scheduled events would happen without a hitch.  My job has been to take care of him, and so far, he is still breathing a doing well.  I think we may just survive this building-a-house thing! 

Pick up and Clean up

As I mentioned before, we purchased our yurt second-hand.  While parts of it were in great shape, it had fallen into disrepair.  The yurt's prior home was north of Columbia Falls, very close to Glacier National Park.  Being that far into the mountains, it survived a hefty snowload.  Unfortunately there was some mildew issues with the insulation, which transferred itself onto the lattice of the yurt walls. 
We purchased the yurt, knowing that we would need to replace the insulation, and give it some much needed TLC.  Thankfully, we decided on a price with the seller on Easter Sunday, and the following week was gorgeous.  My dad was recruited to help Tanner take down the yurt and haul it to our house that we are renting.  What should have been a two day job, turned into a 4 day job.

 Tanner had to build some scaffolding to get this job done.  This is the inside of the yurt and dome skylight.

The yurt exterior wall all laid out.  It looks like Buddy was a huge help that day.
Despite the foot of snow, these were our first real springy days, so the guys could comfortably be in short sleeves, but not dying in the heat.

                                    My pa unscrewing one of the many holding the yurt together.

                                                        Looking down from the dome

                                This is day two or three, I can just hear my dad saying..."oh, my aching back!"
                                     However, don't we have a pretty floor?  :)
 Tanner has since mentioned that cheap/forced father-in-law labor is nice to have!  My dad wasn't too sure what to think of our yurt plan in the beginning, despite seeing the website and hearing our rave reviews.  He is a motor home guy, so this just seemed outlandish!  After seeing the structure, and taking down the very heavy parts, he is satisfied that we aren't completely crazy.

Once we got the yurt hauled off and into our care, it has been stored at our place for the time being.
This last Sunday, being that it was a gorgeous sunny day, we decided to take out the lattice pieces that needed some cleaning and do some hands on scrubbing to get the yurt looking like new again.

Here I am, scrubbing 94.2 feet of mildewy lattice with very strong bleach water.  Here, you have free tickets to the gun show...enjoy.

In the meantime, Tanner was scrubbing down the doors.  Snow had been left up against them and they had the same black affect that we weren't going for.  They sure cleaned up nicely!

All of the lattice was cleaned and then given some Murphy's soap for some moisture=good as new.  All rolled up and ready to, well, roll!

      Doors are looking good, and will get a fresh coat of stain before they are put onto the yurt.

As always with a great day of hard work and amazing weather, we gorged ourselves on some dinner and slept like babies!  Monday morning we met the excavator at the new property to start clearing space for the new homestead.

Moral of the story:  My cleaning services are worth thousands of dollars.  I just may think about contracting out at this rate...

The Yurt

Embarking on a new project is always exciting.  There are times when the task may seem daunting or scary, but a really good project leaves you feeling elated and invigorated, even when the project has left you working long hours, maybe in extreme temperatures.  The task of building a house, and developing land that has been left untouched is probably the biggest project that any married couple will enter into.  Many marriages don't survive the process, for some it's a hobby and just a warm up for the next house-building project.  For Tanner and I, it is our future.  We do not plan on ever building a house again, or moving from the beautiful property with which we find ourselves so lucky to have found.  We hope that our home will be a haven for family to come and spend time; a place for our dogs to grow old and retire to; a haven for our creativity to flourish.

I think this view will suffice...

While we are in the process of building our first house, our first home will be a yurt.  "What the heck is a yurt?" you ask?  Well, it is basically a glorified tent.  To be fair, it is a round structure with a pitched roof, 7 foot walls, solid flooring (whatever platform you wish to place it on) with windows and doors.  Yurts have been used for centuries by Mongolian herdsmen on grassland steppes of Central Asia.  Today yurts are manufactured all over the world and used as back country shelters, temporary housing, or conference centers (no joke, the website boasts it).

This diagram shows the guts of the main walls of a yurt.

Our yurt is a Colorado Yurt.  You can learn more about them at mycoloradoyurt.com  This website is full of information and options for all sorts of alternative living structures.

We bought our yurt second-hand, which in turn saved us a healthy chunk of change, but has been a much bigger task in getting it taken down, cleaning it, and we will soon be setting it up again.

                                  This is our yurt, before we took it down.

Yurts come in five different sizes, ranging from 16-30 feet in diameter from the Colorado Yurt company.  We have a 30 foot yurt, which gives us 706 square feet of living space.  We have eight windows, two doors, and a T&G wood floor.  Once inside, the dome skylight lets in a ton of light and it really seems spacious.  Our excitement for living in the yurt is growing more each day!
Cheers!

To learn more about yurts:
www.yurts.com
www.yurtsofamerica.com