December 2021 Update: Wrapping Up an Unexpected Year

Here's our last progress update for the YEAR! That sounds strange, doesn't it?

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Wrapping up 2021, we've got some not-so-great information about the old well we found, but much happier news on the progress clearing the homesite, and there's even a tree frog who will be making his appearance in the update today! Also, we learned a hard lesson about one DIY task we attempted, uh oh! Finally, scroll down to check out the VIDEO of the tree removers playing with some pretty big toys.

Watching the tree removal was so exciting for the whole family!

Pricing and Excavators and Trees, Oh My!

It's been an exciting December. After months of waiting, we finally received our design pricing - ahh just wait for my next post for all the fun and colorful deets!!! I can't wait to share what we chose and my vision for the new house!

After signing off on the design pricing contract, the builder immediately got to work clearing the homesite and driveway. I think our driveway is about 400 feet long and the homesite clearing is supposed to be a little shy of an acre, so it's a pretty big task clearing that much forest.

These are the boots I wear on the homesite and in the woods. They've held up great for months so far!

Giant tree root balls were dug out within minutes with the right equipment. Some jobs are much easier NOT "doing it ourselves"!

We were able to visit the land almost every day the tree removers were working and it was super fun to get to observe their process. Wow, there is some big equipment involved! At one point, the owner was operating an excavator digging out 40 foot trees by their roots, two other men were chopping up the huge trunks into manageable pieces, and his son was driving a utility vehicle stacking it all together into the biggest bonfire I've ever seen. I feel like it's hard to tell from pictures, but the burning pile was about 15 feet high and 30 feet wide if I had to estimate. But more on that later.

It turns out this is really dangerous. Oops.

Pulling Vines Down & David's Accident

The other day we hung out for a few hours on the land, cleaning it up a bit and also enjoying a little bonfire to burn up some of the tree debris. I filled a huge trash bag with litter that had been dumped on the land, but I'll need many more. I also cleared a path from the homesite to a clearing where I'd like to create a field for animals or a garden. I cut down two small trees myself using a hand saw. That was exhausting! I think I'll add an electric chainsaw or branch cutter to my wish list, haha! David also cut down a dead tree and chopped it for firewood we used for a nice bonfire along with some sticks and tree debris we gathered.

We then started pulling down vines which it turns out can be really hard to do. They can be wrqpped completely around huge tree limbs and don't just fall off. The tree remover told us we could hire a tree climber to remove vines for us, but of course, we thought we'd try to pull down a few ourselves. The small vines are doable, but the big ones are actually dangerous to pull down the way we were doing it - they could get caught on a dead branch and cause it to fall on someone. David just got done explaining that to me and then it happened to him. The human capacity for optimism is undeniable. On a serious note, we saw the large, dead branch attached to the vine he was pulling, but we thought it would fall a different way - famous last words? It fell on his arm and glanced off, scraping it and causing pain from the impact. I thought his arm might be broken but as he refused even the most basic first aid, we just waited it out. Within a few days, he said it felt better. Had it been a more direct hit, I think things could have been worse. Whew! Lesson learned: Don't force large vines down from the ground by pulling them loose above your head.

For a safer way to prune, try my favorite lopper.

Remember the well we found a few months ago? It's not good news.

The Well

Remember this well we found deep in the woods? Well, now we kind of wish we hadn't. We pointed it out to construction just in case they had any thoughts on it, if it could be reused or perhaps rehabbed down the road. They consulted a well expert who was able to check the registry for all the wells in the area (I didn't know that was a thing.) It turns out it's a turbine well, basically industrial or farm grade, if you will, and had been used decades ago for an orchard that used on be on our land. Apparently, such wells must be either approved for use due to their larger pull on the water table OR adapted into regular residential wells OR capped to prevent anyone from accessing or using them again without permits. Such wells are also metered and can cost money to use. We had no idea that large wells had to be monitored by the government. We didn't even know that the well we found is larger than normal. I don't know much about wells, as you can tell.

So what is the bottom line? Basically, it's expensive. We either have to pay to cap the old well (not cheap) plus drill a new one, or pay to adapt it for regular use so that it can't possibly pull as much water from the water table as it's might be able to do. Granted we weren't trying to pull a large amount of water anyway, it just happens to be the well that's already there, but since it has the potential to do so, it's a problem in the eyes of the ol' law. We asked if we can just drill a new well as originally planned and then deal with this old well later, but we were told no, now that it's been noticed, it has to be dealt with to proceed.

Tree have grown into the old well. The tree remover cleaned up the area as best he could.

To add to the fun, we had to have the trees removed around the old well so it could be accessible, but some of the trees seem to have grown into the well or at least surrounded the equipment. So, the trees could not be ripped out of the ground without first consulting the well expert whom we haven't met yet. I suppose that will be an ongoing situation for awhile but hopefully there will be good news soon.

Fortunately, in other ways we've balanced our budget so far, so it looks like this will be the first overage we'll have to cover out of pocket. Of course, it's a bit concerning to already have a planned overage when the build hasn't even started yet, but I believe it will all work out as it's meant to be!

VIDEO: Notice our daughter in the background kept shouting, "Tee fall down, tee fall down!"

The Burn

Interestingly, while it turns out wells are registered and regulated, burning the fell trees had less red tape than we expected.

Originally, we asked if the tree removal contractor could save the trees for us to use as firewood later. That's when he and the site planner pretty much politely laughed us out of town, explaining that the pile of trees and debris would be more huge and unmanageable than we could imagine - and they were right. A pile the size of the one above was burned 3 days in a row and then more was buried, and we still have plenty of branches and debris we could burn on bonfires every night for months, not to mention all the other dead or small trees on the property we could use if needed. Had the guys left all the fell trees, the mountains of trunks would have been higher than our heads all over the property, dangerous to access, and could have attracted snakes or other animals. I wouldn't have wanted our daughter playing near that and I'm glad they burned it, in the end.

As for how the burn process works, we were told we had to get a permit a day in advance and get a new permit every day, and that we had to call at the same time as the tree remover. But in the end, the tree remover was able to just call in the permit before burning each day and that's all we had to do. Also, burn permits are free. Yay!

This fire ring is perfect if you're like us an enjoy a good bonfire (normal-sized, of course!)

I found this tree frog in the road.

The Tree Frog

I found a little squirrel tree frog in the road apparently sunning himself, and I was afraid he would be hit by a car. Not to worry, I relocated him to the woods on the side of the road. I haven't seen him since, so hopefully he found his way home.

This little guy was my buddy the other afternoon.

Imagine when I showed this photo to our daughter - she was so jealous! Since then she wants to look for frogs on the land every time we visit, but we haven't found anymore yet. Soon, I hope!

After an afternoon of playing with frogs... this could come in handy.

Wow, it's totally clear and ready to build! This view is looking from the homesite toward the driveway.

Many years ago I had a coworker named Allison who called me out on something I do with my (paper) calendar. When the day is done I draw a line through it; I think that makes it easier to glance down and know what day it is. But Allison said it's like crossing out the days of our lives. Allison was an intern at the company I worked for at the time, a super fun, high-energy, beautiful and smart young woman and she went on to great success in marketing in Chicago, last I heard. I've never forgotten her saying that about my calendar, and I learned a little lesson that day from her seize-the-day mindset (even though I still cross out the days for visual ease - shhh, don't tell her!)

I suppose it's an understatement to say that it's been quite a year for us all! Remember how excited everyone was for 2020? Ummm yep... And then 2021? Uh yeah... And now I hear people saying they can't wait for 2021 to end so 2022 can start. Hmmn. You know what I really believe? That every year counts and I don't want to wish an entire year of our lives away. There is good along with the bad and whether or not we like everything about this year, it's still a precious year of our lives and I'd hate to wish that away. So... my wish is that we're all able to end the year on a peaceful note and enter 2022 with some hope in our pockets and love in our souls. Happy (early) New Year!

With Love,

Molly

***Don't forget to stay tuned for the big design reveal, coming NEXT!***

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