Summer hasn't quite left us yet, here in the Flathead Valley. People are still hittin' the River: fishing, hiking, rafting. The "
Fresh Huckleberries" signs are still posted up en route to
Glacier National Park, and there are still a few tourist RV's left in the
motor park down the road. And as long as the ground isn't frozen, some people are still making the most of the ever-shrinking window of opportunity to
build. That's where we find ourselves, now. The word around here is, all bets are off after Halloween. That's when the weather could turn foul at the drop of a hat. Some
daring folks, though, will build all the way up until Thanksgiving.
Tomorrow, the digging starts (!) for the
water well we'll be sharing with U.D. (Uncle Dave) (see
last post). The local well logs in the area indicate an average depth of 267 ft. (standing water level average = 94 ft.), with an average flow rate of about 20gpm -- that should be plenty 'nuff for the foreseeable future,
Deo Volente. (I've been eyeing the "
Simple Pump" as a reliable means of pumping the water up, with or without electricity. The
benefits of such a system would be enormous.)
We've consulted with an excavator, who believes that the ground on our plot may be "un-rocky" enough to dig down for a walk-out basement. If this is accomplished soon enough, there may be time to build the basement, and perhaps live in it while we build up the rest of the house. I've gathered that this is not the best of living arrangements, but it could save us some money in rent, for sure. I hope it would be a beneficial trade-off, that wouldn't rob us of our sanity and family cohesion. :-)
That's all for now. I'll try to post more pictures soon. I know you like pictures.