Day 11, Sunday 8/12/01

Butchie was up first, big surprise. I got up at 8:30, Laurie at 9. Rained most of the night and is still raining. We go to the web for a forecast. It's not supposed to continue. Laurie has to leave to go to Jen's baby shower in Westfield, NJ. We go to town for food and tarps and to wait out the rain. When we come back, we resume cutting and collecting wood, filling the backhoe's front bucket several times. I now have a pile of firewood that could be as much as 10 cords.

A car pulls up the driveway and some guy gets out. No, its not the well guy. Its my new neighbor, Pat. He is from New Jersey. Just built a chalet down the road. He has 50 acres and we share a border. We exchange numbers and agree to watch each others stuff whenever possible. Seems nice enough. Not hurting for money. His house was built, from wooded lot to finished, in about 6 months. Ugh. I only have a hole. Half a hole.

Butchie has to go home, it's his Dad's birthday. He packs and leaves. I get worked up and call the well guy again. He's not home. I leave a message. I sulk and cut more wood. I want to be building the foundation, not collecting wood.

Richard and Brenda arrive. They are my Kuhn's Brothers Log Homes dealer. They came to check out the site and oversee tomorrows delivery of the log home kit. We talk for a while, then they go to their hotel. I'll see them at 7 Am tomorrow. The 2 tractor trailer loads of house are due at 8 AM. I will go to pick up the utility trailer I rented From Bradons at 7:30 AM. The only drawback is the fenders of the trailer stick up above the bed, so I'll need to build a platform out of 2x10's so the forks don't hit the fenders. The 9,000 pound capacity all terrain fork lift I rented is due first thing in the morning. Because some of the pallets are 20 feet long, you can't just pick them up with a forklift and drive them up the driveway because the driveway is not 20 feet wide. That's why I rented the trailer. Once on the trailer, the pallets will be length wise. Just pull the trailer up with the 4x4 truck. The plan is to offload the full pallets in the street, then send the tractor trailers on their way, then load one pallet at a time onto the trailer, tow it up to the site, follow it with the forklift and unload the full pallet onto tarps and pallets. I have 2 hours to unload and release the drivers, after that its $30 an hour for the driver to wait. Each.

Laurie arrives and we sit and talk. She had a good time at the shower. She has driven 4 hours, and is glad to be out of the car. It rains on and off. We come inside and she practices her piano on a portable keyboard while I write this. Its nice and peaceful. Tomorrow is going to be interesting.

8 hours, rainy and 75