Drilling the Well

We woke up this morning and called Alfalla's Well Drilling to see if they were coming today or tomorrow - we assumed tomorrow because of the rainy weather into the morning, but found out Tony was already out there drilling. At 56 ft they hit bedrock, and then put the casing in which protects the well from the surface down to the bedrock. This process took about three hours.

This is the drill rig. It is very loud. We picked this spot so that we wouldn't have to cut more trees to clear room for the trucks. This spot is about 100 ft from the workshop/studio and about 50 ft from the main house.

The three "smaller" pipes on the left side of the truck are the casing. All of those are now in the ground. You see Tony's son positioning one of them in the next picture trying to keep it from hitting the locust tree.

After the casing is in, they drill through the bedrock until they hit water. The rock itself then forms a casing for the well. Interestingly, Tony told us the bedrock here is Marcellus shale - for those who have been following the fracking debate in New York, this is the rock formation that has the natural gas.

This is an incredible machine - apparently a new one costs $850,000. This one is from 1979.

I'm not sure this looks okay to drink!

Tony told us that if they didn't hit water by 200 ft, they would stop for the day and determine if they needed to bring in another machine to open up the well (which would cost alot more money). I was getting very nervous that this would be the case, but then we hit water at 180 ft!

We hit enough water for 5 houses!

After they hit water, they pulled out the drill bits and capped the well - with a shovel?

Here's the drill at the end of the day.

Stoning the Foundation

We got stone delivered today from a different place and discovered what "crusher run" stone is supposed to look like - much better, Pjor, don't you think?

Rob's new friend Joe spread the stone over the foundation so that there will be a flat surface on which to pour the concrete. Rob used his techy laser device to make sure the stone was flat and level. We also marked the corners of the building using Pythagorean's theorem for those of you math junkies out there. Next step is the building permit so Rob can get going with the footers and foundation.

Planning and Flagging

Thursday morning view of the lake - waiting for the truck with more driveway stone to arrive. Nice location for a B&B, eh?

Rob and I spent Saturday afternoon figuring out where the septic system, well, water pipes, and electric lines will go. We based it on the engineer's design (the big paper you see in the picture) and the required setbacks (i.e. how far the well has to be from the septic tanks, leach field, etc), but had to figure out the specific location for all the ditches and the well ourselves. We then flagged the ditch for the electric and water line with yellow flags and the ditch for the septic with pink flags. The stone in the drawing was supposed to be spread on the foundation bottom on Thursday, but the excavator machine broke and Pjor had to go back to Holland, so that is on the agenda for this week.

After our day's work, we had a glass of wine back at the cottage, and Rob made friends with the neighbors. 

Making a Driveway

Not what you want to see the night before putting in a driveway....tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings.

Wednesday morning the sky had cleared and we got ready for the arrival of the first load of crusher run stone to put down on the driveway. We laid a fabric which was supposed to keep the stone from sinking into the mud. Gary at the stone yard estimated we would need 4 truckloads (21-22 tons each) to fill the driveway, but by the end of the day we were up to truckload #9, and not finished yet. Thursday morning we had the final load (#10) delivered, and a truckload of 2 inch minus stone for the base of the foundation.

After the first load was in, Pjor dug out the place for the flares for the culvert and Rob installed them, so the water can go under the driveway.

Excavating the Foundation

The foundation of the workshop/studio is excavated!

We bought drainage pipes this morning which will route the water around the workshop/studio.

What to do with all the mud?

We're spreading out the mud, flattening it, and moving some to a pile in the front that we're going to try to give away. Need to get the culvert pipes in this afternoon, since the driveway stone is coming tomorrow!

Excavating the Driveway

Rob arrived back in the US on May 21 with his friend and expert excavator Pjor and his girlfriend Lianne. We rented a bad ass excavator the next day and started digging out the driveway on May 23. Within one day the driveway was cleared - we harvested many small trees and a couple bigger ones:( - more than we even thought were there, but Rob is excited to use them for building the structures, staircases, and furniture. Rob bought an awesome chainsaw and has barely put it down since he bought it.