Thursday, May 22, 2008

Yes Fred, Two Miles of Pipe

Just to place my very slight hyperbole into context, last night’s torrential rains “moved” the temporary (I assume) flexible pipe into a more photographic position.

Our neighbor(?) came down yesterday evening to discuss the situation, and was greatly illuminated by her ability to witness the two miles of pipe laying on the ground. The very, very long period of embarrassing air bursts emanating from her pipe the evening before were quickly explained.

On a side note, any anxiety we had about this situation negatively affecting the neighbor’s (?) toilet habits was also resolved. She is comfortable evacuating in the great outdoors.

K called me from home today to report that a lovely old gentleman and presumed member of the subcontracting team who will participate in the next steps of basement and foundation construction was here. He was slopping around in the muddy quagmire known yesterday as our excavated basement, mumbling to himself and brandishing a shovel. His handiwork is evidenced thusly:


Seriously. He hand-dug this little trench to encourage flow-off of some of the water that had pooled in the excavated area. K sounded a bit mystified when she called. I was alternately impressed and charmed when I came home to pay witness to his efforts.

And, because I know the real reason anyone cares about this blogging endeavor is because of the stories about our kritters and not the continuing saga of our weak homebuilding efforts, here are a couple of contributions:

It did rain overnight. The lightning began around 3:30 a.m. K got up with the labs to turn on a light (so the lightning was less obvious) and medicate them. By 4:00 a.m., the storms had started in earnest. I got up with the dogs, turned on the radio, sat down to do some work I had been lying in bed perseverating about anyhow, and listened for a break in the rain. At 5:00 a.m., I thought I could hear a lull in the rain. I grabbed a flashlight and dashed out to complete goat, horse, chicken and cat chores.

Today was the day we had been expecting the Vet to come “geld” Bill. Although I didn’t have much hope that any part of the day would be salvaged for such activity, I decided to place Bill’s halter on so we would be ready just in case. So I grabbed the halter, and put it on Bill in the cold. In the rain. In the dark.

And here is another reason I love K. When she called to report the arrival of the lovely fellow with a hand spade, she casually commented she had gone down to check on the goats and Bill and had removed his halter. It seems he was having trouble eating with the muzzle part in his mouth.

And as a final note, the dogs love the new landscaping. Mercy especially enjoys the big mud hole and its therapeutic benefits for her paws.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

In the Hole

So, if one piece of heavy equipment in the yard is a good thing, it would stand to reason two pieces of heavy equipment in the yard is even better.

Wrong.

That second piece of equipment would be the emergency backhoe brought in to assist the emergency plumber with making the emergency repairs to the neighbor’s (?) water lines the first piece of heavy equipment unsuspectingly pierced.

Go ahead, ask the question out loud. No, the real question. The one that is the subtext of the first question that came to mind.

The answer: I swear, we are not idiots. As evidenced by the inordinate amount of time spent preparing for the heavy equipment, we attended to every detail. We checked with the water company, the phone company, the cable company, the electric company, the propane company, every imaginable city and county office of: zoning, planning, platting, plotting, a daydreaming.

And as for the first, more socially appropriate question: we do not know why the neighbor’s (?) water line runs down the center of our property.

The defense presents as exhibit “A” this crude drawing:




Wherein MisFit Farm is the area in red, Steve and Carolyn’s homestead is roughly represented by the area in yellow, and the property owned by the neighbor (?) is grossly underrepresented in green. The brown area represents the house, which is not even close to scale or proportion. The left side of the image is south-oriented, and the neighbor (?) is located to the north of us. Steve and Carolyn are to our west.

The point I am trying to make is that this isn’t a “neighbor” in the conventional sense. We actually rarely see or interact with this person, since the part of our property that abuts hers isn’t even accessible without the use of a machete, anti-malaria serum and hip-waders. The access road to her home runs on the west side of her property.

The neighbor’s (?) water line, as it turns out, runs smack-dab down the center of our property.



To answer the second socially appropriate question: We have no idea what we are going to do. Our contractor was super – he had someone out this afternoon to “repair” her line so she wouldn’t be forced to bring her rubber ducky and bathrobe here to the trailer to bathe in the morning. But I shudder to think what the extra two miles of pipe will do to her already challenged and inadequate water pressure. And I shudder to think of the “who pays” and “how much” questions which will likely face us tomorrow.

Stay tuned: we can’t wait to see how this saga ends.

Monday, May 19, 2008

On Deck

Change has been afoot – apaw – and ahoof – at MisFit Farm. We received an e-mail from the contractor two weeks ago, letting us know that our house had come onto somebody’s radar. The excavators had one basement to dig and then our basement was next. His estimate was that they would complete the first basement early in the week, and then, weather permitting, arrive to dig ours at the end of the week.

Here is where K and I experience a fundamental disconnect. It is of the “glass half-full or half-empty” variety. K immediately seized upon THURSDAY as the day we should expect to see the heavy equipment. Rather than cast myself as a pessimist, I like to think that I viewed the estimated arrival time as task-oriented, rather than time-oriented. So I did not choose a particular day upon which to fixate, but left myself open to seeing the equipment arrive at the Farm after they were done with the basement before ours.

K is not a sports person, but I tried to explain the concept of “batter up, MisFit Farm on deck, and someone else in the hole.” The only part of the analogy K embraced was the idea that there would be a hole – for our basement. She really liked the sound of that.

Thursday came and went, and a dejected and disappointed K sat at home, anticipating the arrival of the equipment.
Thankfully, this disappointment did not dampen her elation to come home this afternoon to find destruction, clearing, and at long, long last, heavy equipment.


And I guess I have to admit, my sports analogy doesn’t really hold up, since tomorrow, we get a hole.

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Little Moments

I make no illusions that living at MisFit Farm has been, in many respects, my salvation. It provides me with wide open spaces and room to make big mistakes. It gives me many things outside myself to focus on. It offers plenty of creative outlets for my hyper-ass. It routinely offers up little moments like these: