It only took Ted two days to do the work it has taken me 4 days to blog. Here is the rest of the story.
Ted finished connecting the plumbing line to the septic tank and covered it with dirt.
It is so exciting to be one step closer to no longer having to use the portable toilet or pee in the woods. Although, I have to admit, while on my Hero's Journey I pretty much perfected the art of peeing in the woods.
Ted sloped the grade away from the house so that during a down pour the rain doesn't flow toward the foundation.
Next he added some rocks at the base of the berm to retain some of the dirt.
My healing room windows and door look out onto this area as well as the front door. We asked Ted to do this because we thought it would look nice as you walk toward those two entrance areas of our house. It is my plan to fill this area with herbs and plants that attract butterflies. Since this area is shaded in the afternoon during the summer it will be an attractive as well as cool place to sit outside on a warm day.
After Ted had everything looking really nice he started to dig.
We needed a trench for the water line from the well to the house, for the power line for the pump, and for the 30 amp electrical line we want at Turtle Rock - our camper area.
We only lost one very small pine tree in the process, located where the back hoe is up in the left corner of this photo.
We were really shocked that the dig was going so well - not large rock issues. Then Ted ran into a large shallow rock at Turtle Rock - sort of ironic!
The trench needs to be 24" deep so the water pipe doesn't freeze in the winter. If we weren't at a high elevation we might have been able to just insulate the water pipe. Ted signaled me with a "look" that he could take out a Birch tree in an attempt to go around the rock. I quickly returned with a "don't kill another tree" look. So it looks like we will have to jack hammer!
Ted will be back one more time after the pipes go in so he can cover up the trenches and do some final touches on moving some of the big rocks around.
Well, in part one I promised an exciting conclusion. This might not be exciting for you but it is pretty exciting for us.
Our picnic table arrived!
Jim spent the rest of the day putting it together - trying to beat the setting sun.
The next morning Jim and I carried it to the area he created at Turtle Rock.
The frame is metal but the seats and top are plastic. We decided to go with plastic because carpenter bees are a problem in Western North Carolina. He found it at Northern Tool + Equipment located in Asheville. www.northertool.com
It was our initial intention to get a recycled plastic table with steel frame. We couldn't find one at the local stores but did find several on line. www.picnictablesource.com
Unfortunately, the cost was 3 to 4 times more than the one we got from Northern Tool. Sadly, this is probably what happens to a lot of people who attempt to do something "green." The cost becomes the deciding factor.
We are attempting to do our best with all the decisions we are making.
We do expect this table to last longer than wood and we found a great metal recycler in Asheville incase it ever falls apart, which it probably will some day. And, just for bonus points, we did recycle all the scrap metal from our metal roof. (future blog)
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