Weather Improves, Construction Picks Up

The title says it all for this post.  We finally started to get some good traction this past week as it quit snowing and raining everyday for a little while.

It all started the day we rode into Idaho Falls for supplies and a dentist appointment.  We passed over the Snake River Bridge at the edge of Swan Valley on our way.  The river is low right now and we think this time is some of the best fishing.... maybe next year for us...

We returned from Idaho Falls (IF) late that same afternoon to see 8 loads of 3/4 gravel at Eagle View.  Troy our sensational excavator was busy while we were away!  Now we can get the concrete pad foundations started!  Hooray!  On the east side of the Shop there are 5 of the 8 loads.

Behind the Shop to the south there are 2 more loads.  We will spread this gravel with the Kioti (Coyote) tractor.  He's a South Korean tractor.  We like him and have named him (Red) Rover.

There's the 8th load of gravel somewhat spread out from the truck.  This is our premiere guest parking spot and we wanted to improve the level from side to side.  

Below is the guest spot after the final spreading.  It is much more level side to side now.

Same spot different view looking south.

We also started filling in the wrap porch for the porch concrete slab foundation.

North side porch filled in, Check.  Sheep Creek Peak in the background, Check.  Still some lingering snow in the foundation crawlspace, Check.

Garage area before adding 3/4 gravel...

Garage slab area after filling with the 3/4 gravel base.

Dusty showed up with our first load of construction materials.  It consisted of most of the engineered lumber; I-Joists, Glulam Beams, and LVLs, and the pressure treated lumber for the sill plates.

Dusty lines up on our sticker boards to drop the load.

We covered up the lumber with vapor barrier provided by our neighbor Rick.  It started to rain and Rick's offering saved the day!  Thank you Rick!  We have plenty of rocks to weigh the plastic down and prevent the wind from taking it up, up and away.

East porch filled with 3/4 gravel.  Gari shows the reveal outside the frost wall foundation.  We plan to add a 6 inch wide strip of gravel outside the frostwall and extend the porch slab the same distance over top of the frost wall top.

Anybody know what this is?  If you didn't guess, it's the exposed base of our RV toilet.  The bone colored thing at frame left is the foot pedal; that's the flush and fill mechanism.  We had no plans to do this repair, but when you live in an RV these things happen and your entire schedule changes by necessity.  This time it was the spring cartridge that snapped off.  The spring cartridge is what moves the pedal back to the off and closed position.  It's important.

Inside the foot pedal housing is the water control valve, and the spring cartridge is mounted behind the valve.  We have the two mounting screws loose in the picture below.  That story ended well, all back together now with a functioning spring cartridge.

We also found time for a hike and saw this small group of large Sandhill Cranes.  This is about a quarter mile from our spot at Eagle View and they pretty much live there.  We saw 3 or 4 babies hanging with the group now.  We didn't catch the babies in this shot.

With that, we wave goodbye for now.