We bought our land and we couldn’t wait to get started! We had plans. We had dreams. We had hopes. We had a vision. We had waited a long time to start on this adventure and we were ready to start!!
We got estimates on the work. We cried. We got more estimates. We cried more. We decided it was time for a different plan.
The plan involved getting a logging guy to cut enough of the trees up front near the road to pay for the grading guy to build us a road and level out a future home site. It was a great plan….on paper.
We were so excited when the logging guy cut the first tree! We must have watched him work for hours that day. My kids LOVED watching all the big equipment and the trees falling. I liked watching the work too actually, but my son thought the logging guy was a Superhero. He would get so excited when we headed out there and cry huge tears when we had to leave. Nearly every afternoon we would take picnic lunches and watch him cut and drag trees until suppertime. He had his very own audience just about every day. That’s not at all weird is it? Nah, I didn’t think so either….
When the first load of wood pulled off our land onto the road heading for the lumber yard, we actually stood on the side of the road taking pictures and waving like idiots. I’m SURE the neighbors loved us and didn’t think we were weird at all!
Well, the money from the logging didn’t add up to what we were initially quoted. It turned out the money from the logging didn’t cover the grading guy after all. The grading guy had ran into a few teeny, little problems making the driveway.
A little problem like running into black fertile soil that wouldn’t pack well enough for a driveway. Not such a little problem when he spent days taking dirt from the house site to pack the driveway. Sound silly? Yeah, it was. In hindsight, we should have stopped the work and made him move the driveway, but in for a penny, in for a pound. Or, maybe that should be pay out a penny, pay out a pound!
Don’t get me wrong, the grading guy did great work. I’m sure our driveway will last forever, but so will the pain of paying the bill! However, the work was done and we were happy with the end product but we realized that we couldn’t afford to do all of the work we had wanted to do. Already we had spent money that we had earmarked for clearing and grading pastures. Time for a new plan.
Just one problem. We didn’t have a new plan! We considering doing more logging to pay for more of the work on the land but we hadn’t made that much the first time around. And honestly, the logging had left a disaster. It really looked like a bomb had went off out front. It hadn’t helped that he had started in the winter when it was raining quite a bit. He had left tracks and ruts that my kids played hide-and-seek in. Seriously, it looked like a disaster area out front. I’m not sure if deleted the pictures of how bad it looked or I just didn’t take any pictures of the mess but it was not pretty!
We decided that the initial logging had served its purpose but we wanted to save some of the biggest trees and be selective about the trees that were left for shade. The biggest trees were the ones the logging guy really wanted though and they were across the creek at the back of the property. We just weren’t ready to clear back there yet so we took the logging option off the table for now.
So, Jim came up with a new plan. His plan involved us doing the work ourselves. Ah yes, more chaos-not exactly the part I love. Did I mention that already? Anyway, Jim’s new plan was a typical guy plan really. A big boy and their big toy kind of plan. A buy a bulldozer and do the work ourselves kind of plan. And I fell for it! Enter the bulldozer…Jim’s new best friend.
