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!