Endings and Beginnings

Shane was up bright and early, ready to explore.

Carrie took him out for a spin around the property in the gator.

I had to go in for my first day of work/training at noon. I drove in faith the gauge predicted how much fuel I had correctly (again!). With the fuel light flashing, I drove 25 miles up to Costco to fill up, swung by the Extended Day Enrichment Program (EDEP) office to pay for Shane's first month, and then scooted to my training at my new high school.

When I got back, I found Carrie and Shane mowing.

They didn't hear me when I called out, but I caught up soon enough.

That's my family!

Carrie had a contractor come by in the afternoon named Kyle. Kyle had already been contracted to install automatic waterers in our fields, but he also did fences. He'd been our property while we were out and confirmed our suspicions that the bad contractors had augured down to throw in our fence posts instead of tamping or setting them properly.

Carrie asked him a bunch of questions over the weekend and he was straightforward. He did not use concrete. He didn't like the slacklines Carrie was thinking about using and explained why. He said he used a post driver and explained how it worked and why he did it.

Today, Kyle drove by with four spare posts he had lying around and gave Carrie a free sample.

It took him maybe 15 minutes to slam in four posts with talking and answering questions in between. 

The post on the right is the one Kyle set. The post on the left is one Carrie pulled out and I threw back in for comparison.

Perspectives can be funny, so here's a closer in shot with a stake to help. Kyle's post was at least 6 inches deeper than the previous post. Some dirt may have fallen in the hole of the previous post, so it might have sat an inch deeper before Carrie pulled it out. Might. It certainly wasn't in as deep or as solidly as Kyle's.

Kyle joked that he was tempted to give Carrie and shovel and say, "If you can get that out in under 15 minutes I'll do the whole property for free."

It's a good thing he didn't or I would have taken that challenge!

When we asked the bad contractors to walk away, we'd also told them, "Pick your stuff up by Wednesday. Take whatever lumber you want, but we're getting rid of whatever is left."

They arrived just as Carrie was finishing talking to Kyle.

It was the Amish guy with someone I hadn't met. The head contractor hadn't bothered to help him pick up his Bobcat. They'd worked together for 8 years.....

It was a sad situation. Carrie and Shane went inside while they started to load up and I stayed in the garage just in case there were questions.

I ended up on the back of the trailer helping. The box full of trash collapsed as it was being loaded. We had to throw trash into the back of the truck and re-position the load so that the bobcat could fit. There's no dump nearby, so it had to be done in one load or it would have added an hour of travel time back and forth to their journey.

I felt bad for Allen hearing some things from his end. He told me about how Scott had convinced him to buy materials at times even though Scott had taken money for us. He asked for a copy of what Scott had signed and I provided it. "Are you going to try and recoup what he owes you?" I asked.

"Can't," he said. "Religious reasons. Not supposed to." He said he'd keep asking nicely in the hope Scott would pay him what he was owed, because he had his own mouths to feed. Allen's wife was there and she'd brought a baby with her.

I bear him no ill will and told him I'd remember in my prayers. He wanted to know about what we were going to do about the posts and I showed him the driven ones.

Later that evening, Carrie went out for more mowing. She had ear protection this time and described it as relaxing. The sun went down and she turned on headlights for night mowing.

And she's still not finished. She spent over five hours mowing and it looks like our mower is too small for the task. It might suffice if we had horses on the property to act like giant, yard vroombas, but we're a ways off from being ready for them.