We have water!

I need to try to make this one quick. My sister, Jennifer from Iowa and her family, will be in town in a couple of hours for a week or so and tonight we're celebrating our younger sister's birthday. Happy Birthday Erin!!! That means Springfield's famous and original Cashew chicken (Jen's favorite) and birthday cake (my favorite!)


Things are moving along out at the land. Saturday we loaded up with supplies like 6x6x12 posts and a pressure tank for the well and headed out to work. Jeff started with the pressure tank.

Before...


















After...






If you look closely you can see water pouring from the spigot. Now, check out this geyser!



That will eventually be for the indoor plumbing.

We also staked out the perimeter with string to make sure our holes were all lined up. (snicker snicker snort snort!) Here's a tip, stake out the perimeter with string for your holes before you dig them. (Strain your eyes and you might be able to see the string.)
























Jeff knew the auger was jumping around while he was digging due to all the rocks but had no idea it was so bad. Let me show you our Missouri dirt.


That's not our rock pile. That's what came out of the holes! We buried the big rocks in the trench or in concrete before I thought to take pictures for you. They're small boulders and there was at least one in every hole! This leads us to Sunday's work which was a lot of digging. Very fortunately, Jeff's friend, Eric, came out and spent the day helping out. (Thanks Jen, we couldn't have done it without him!!!) They had to widen every hole to make sure the posts would be where they needed to be. Oh yeah, they dug them out by hand. Talk about exhausting work! They even worked right through the pouring rain!

Jeff decided to place a huge nail (nine inches, I think) in the bottom of each post to make sure the bottom as well as the sides of each post would be surrounded by concrete. We don't have to worry about the nail settling into the dirt because each hole is dug down to limestone bedrock.


Once I showed up (after the rain) they were just about out of concrete and were close to wrapping things up for the day. We only have four more posts to set next weekend. That will probably take at least all day Saturday considering it took two guys all day to set eight posts. It's really a lot of work.









In case you wanted to know, we have a concrete mixer and used four to six bags in every hole. Each hole is three feet deep, or as close as the limestone will let us get to that. We have a total of twelve post which range from about three to five feet above the ground and they're placed every ten feet around the perimeter. So, to let you know some things we've learned the hard way...stake out the perimeter with string as well as spray painting for a guide to where to dig your holes and use a large auger bit (18 inches or more.) We used a 12" bit which doesn't allow for wiggle room.

Thanks again Eric!!

Now we're off to a birthday party!