Not so much News from Swan Valley

The summer seems to be waning in southeast Idaho, however we are still getting some 90 degree highs during the day.  We have our sights set on Sun City, AZ, Parker, AZ and Pahrump, NV as our winter get away's this year.  We have made a little incremental progress on the Shop over the last month, but the house start is completely stalled right now.  We were hoping to get the house foundation in this summer, but with each passing day it seems more and more improbable.

We worked on the front driveway a bit more over the last couple of weeks, and we are extremely pleased with the way it turned out.

Below is a shot from the trailer one morning.  Inversion clouds hang low on Mt Baldy.

We did get a shop ceiling heater installed recently.  It hangs from the ceiling and will burn liquid propane.  We the tank is not  installed yet, but we have requested a 500 gallon tank model that we will rent.  We plan to do this until we have the house finished and decide if we want to buy our own tank, possibly a 1,000 gallon model.  That way we can shop best propane prices.  Below, Robert the installer and service manager for LP Propane out of Idaho Falls prepares to hoist the heating unit up to the ceiling.

Robert has the heater hoisted to just about where he wants it.

Robert making the final connections and set ups.  The unit is pretty large, and weighs in at around 150 pounds.  It is a 200,000 BTU model.  That should easily keep the shop above freezing in the winter.

We did take last weekend off and went to a charity shin dig at the Flemming Ranch.  The Flemming family has been in the Swan Valley area for generations and has been instrumental in the development of the area.  The charity event was well done with silent and live auctions, raffles and included dinner and live music.  They raised well over $100,000 for abused children through the Hope for Children Foundation. 

We wanted to see the Flemming compound, it looks magnificent from the road.  They had some interesting Idaho only landscaping on the grounds.

Below is a shot of the house progress.  Not much.  We have the small hole that Troy dug looking for some good ballast for the front driveway.  The steel posts in the front mark the electric and sewer stubs that we left for the future house.  The farther back wooden stakes mark the future house corners and we have had them there since last year.  We had planned to have the foundation completed by this time, but our concrete contractor slipped his schedule and then hurt his back.  Last we spoke with him his earliest start is September first.  That will be cutting it close to finish before our winter departure.  Time will tell what happens.

Our garage door guy, Angel came out this week.  He adjusted all three torsion springs on our overhead doors.  They work great now.  Angel also gave us a price for installing door operators.  We may take him up on one or two next year.

Troy came around with a load of 3/4 gravel for the back of the Shop.  We are preparing the area for the 500 gallon propane tank.  Troy carefully spreads the gravel around the well pit and the well casing.

We watered in the gravel yesterday and compacted with the Neuson Wacker today!  It looks plenty good enough to get the propane tank in there.  The tank has to be at least 10 feet from the building.  It should fit right between the well casing and the building.

Below is the back view of the Shop.  You can see the heater vent coming out of the wall there.  We will move our wood pile to make room for the propane tank placement.