Planning the next structure

A structure is required to hold the camper so we don't have to haul it back and forth every time we make a trip. We also need to be able to store an ATV with a wagon, as this will help us immensely in clearing all of the downed trees throughout the property. The last few years have been really rough on the trees, and we have more downed trees and limbs than we can handle.

I always have to design my structures. I have a 3D CAD system and always need to plan what I want, and going through the design process helps me tie down the design so we can be specific about what we want and don't want.

So, on the agenda this year is to install a three-car garage with a pavilion extension. The pavilion extension will allow us to store our lumber, whether it be lumber we have sitting around or lumber we mill from trees on the property. We'll talk later about that vision.

The trip to the property was uneventful except for the price of fuel..... ouch. After stopping at Hansen's in BRF for the best fried chicken in the world, we arrived at the property around noon. Dave had already arrived. We had winter damage on the driveways and trails, so that is always the first order of business when we arrive on our first trip of the year.

We then went back to finish up the firewood storage structure, that we call "the Babcox", that we build last fall. I had a few more roof panels to put on, and more of the sides had to be installed. I worked on the roof while Bryan and Dave worked on the sides. Dave only had one functional arm after, what looked like, a painful accident with his thumb due to a shooting incident the prior week. But Dave is never one to let something like that get in the way of helping out. We wrapped that up and are happy with the finished product. Bryan also split some more firewood for us.

We then went to flag the approximate location for the three-car garage we hope to erect this year. The original intention was to meet with the builder, but after talking with him earlier in the week I knew he had my spec document and was working on the bid. He also remembered the location where we wanted to put this garage, so I did not want to bother him to come down to meet with us just for the sake of meeting with us.

I have tried, unsuccessfully, to schedule excavators. I think in this period of post-Covid, they just have too much work already and don't need my job right now. I had hoped to meet with a few of them, but not getting calls returned kind of tells me they don't have time for that right now. I'll work with my GC and he may be able to get one of his contacts to take on this piece.

Beyond that, it was just normal clean-up activities. Nick, Tiffany and Maddox stopped by for awhile; it was nice to see them. We found out Tiffany was going to go climb Mount Kilimanjaro this summer!!!

A few weeks back, there was an ice jam. It was probably the biggest one I never saw..... when the water let loose, it just dropped the big chunks of ice right where they were when the water rushed out. There was some damage to the lower set of bags.... I had expected some of this due to winter ice. But it also damaged the lowest course of bags on the upper stairs. I never thought we would see water and ice that high. So, we'll have a bit of damage to those bags to repair. This is nothing major, but is just another thing we have to try to get taken care of sooner rather than later.

Otherwise, it was supper and fire for the night.

I was looking forward to the forecasted snowfall that night.... I like the snow and it was not to be anything major. So a lot of rain during the night followed up by snow falling as we awoke. Burritos and coffee for breakfast, cleaning things up and on the road by around 10:00 AM.

Note: In the lower slideshow, you can see the resident bald eagle flying through the canyon. I have seen this eagle multiple times; it is really cool when you are standing at the top of the bluff and he flies by below you. He'll go up and down the creek, looking for fish (or anything else that looks tasty) to eat. I had always wanted to get a picture of him, and now I have one