We hit water!

YES! After digging 125 feet and finding nothing but slop, our well driller asked us if we wanted to pull up and try somewhere else. After much deliberation and careful study of geologic maps and detailed drilling reports (with steel casing depths, not liner and pump depth), we told him yes. Our second attempt yielded water at 50 feet with more available as he drilled lower. We now have 22 gallons per minute at a depth of 125 feet. Whoohooo! I can't tell you what a relief this is.

Well blues

Ah, the joys of general contracting your own home.... HA! Good thing I didn't expect it to be smooth, because last week certainly wasn't, although there was some progress. We now have our address and building permit (yehaw!) and started on our well. I say started, because the well drilling rig has been sitting there since Thursday. He drilled down through soil, basalt, a little layer of insufficient water and is now deep in really wet alluvial sand and has been for three days. He stopped at 125 feet because he wanted me to tell him whether to keep drilling or pull up the bit and drill somewhere else. When he said that I stared at him in blank shock. Me? Tell him what to do? Right, as if I have a clue. He's supposed to be the expert. However, after looking at the well driller's report, I realize that all our neighbors with wells in the same area as ours have casing depths of 155-200 feet, so we have a ways to go yet. So we will forge ahead and hope there's drinkable water somewhere below the quicksand.

I wish I could post the floorplan, but the pdfs aren't uploadable to my blog. Bummer. I love the plan and can visualize our home already. I found a screaming deal on nearly new hard rock maple flooring that was salvaged from a recently laid gym floor that needed foundation work. So now we'll have hardwood everywhere because I bought it for 1.90 per square foot which is about half the price of carpet. Of course, Jeff and I have to install it, but since we already know how, it shouldn't be a problem. So that was my victory purchase for the week. Bargain shopping an entire house is rather fun;)

Labor's Fruit

Wow, the last two weeks have been busy. I spent Labor Day weekend bottling, freezing, and making jam from 3 cases of peaches and painting my bathroom. So we now have lots of delicious peaches to eat over the winter and I won't gag at the Pepto-bismol colored walls in our bathroom anymore. YAY. We also closed the construction loan and I finished the building permit application.

Jeff and Trevor tested their mettle on a 50 mile bike hike on Labor Day and came home with jelly legs and sore muscles. Well, Jeff certainly did, and was completely disgusted with his body's betrayal of trust. I don't think it ever let him down before. Faced with proof that he is not Peter Pan, but indeed, a mere mortal subject to aging and injury, he is taking it quite personally.

I dug hard to find some sympathy, but having a husband who has managed to maintain the same physique and strength he had at twenty-five with NO EFFORT WHATSOEVER on his part has been wonderful in some ways, but tough in others. I mean, I've yo-yoed in and out of 170 pounds of baby weight (six kids, 28 lbs avg. gain each time) over our marriage and have the stretch marks to prove it. I have no illusions of my lack of strength and endurance - hiking to the top of the hill where we are building our house left me completely winded. I figure that's just life and it doesn't fuss me enough to do a thing about it. Jeff on the other hand, is now biking to improve his endurance (You go honey!). I, on the other hand, am just trying to find a moment to curl up and read The Time Travelers Wife or Bloody Jack (a children's book, despite the title).

For the most part, the children are enjoying being back in school. Trevor loves being a sophomore with all the rights and privileges (real and imagined) of being in senior high school. The school does have a very liberal lunch policy and Trevor frequently walks downtown with his friends to buy lunch during their one hour break. Honors Biology is proving tough, but despite the work load, he is excited to be in the class.

Lindsey mostly likes junior high, but not math or the three minutes between classes. She gets flustered under time pressure and becomes more forgetful. I am hoping that the large zippered binder that she takes to all her classes will help her get assignments turned in on time and that she will be able to keep up with everything.

Tyler and Evan are both at the Charter School and seem to be doing well so far. Evan makes friends easily wherever he goes, so the move to a new school wasn't difficult for him. However, Tyler was put in a class where he doesn't know many kids and he says that all the boys are into football and basketball, which Tyler dislikes. So his closest friend right now is a girl who likes books, art, and computers as much as he does. I told him I thought it was great that he has a friend who is a girl, but apparently, he gets teased for it. He didn't think highly of my observation that in a few years, those boys will wish they knew how to talk to girls. He just rolled his eyes. I must not remember fourth grade very well.

Nathan starts pre-school tomorrow and is very excited. The open house on Friday was fun and I know that my biggest challenge will be extricating Jared from the classroom once we've dropped Nathan off. I'll try bribing him with food and see if it works.

We should see some progress on our house this week. I meet with the insulation guy tomorrow, the well driller on Tuesday, the electrician on Wednesday, the engineer from the power company on Thursday, and the excavator whichever day he becomes available. If I get really lucky, I'll get my building permit this week too. So here's hoping.