Cabin #3

Here is a photo of cabin #3:

The guys will start on it tomorrow. This one may prove to be a bit more of a challenge, since it's up on a hill. Men from the camp cut down a large scrub oak tree for us so we could get our equipment in there.

Cabin #4 is sitting directly behind this one.

We also had rain and snow yesterday and today, which turned our driveway once again into a muddy mess. Hopefully it will dry up again before the cabin is ready to be moved. We have until May 10th to have the remaining cabins moved.

Here We Go Again

Winter just won't let go:


Tonight:

Rain showers in the evening...then rain showers and snow showers after midnight. Breezy. Snow accumulation up to 1 inch. Lows in the lower 30s. North winds 15 to 25 mph with gusts to around 40 mph.

Thursday:

Mostly cloudy. Chance of rain showers and snow showers in the morning...then chance of rain showers in the afternoon. Breezy. Highs in the upper 40s. Northwest winds 15 to 25 mph. Chance of precipitation 30 percent.

Two Down, Two to Go

It Must Be Spring

I just pulled off my first woodtick!

One Down -- Three to Go

Here are some final photos of our day:

As we begin, the payloader is stuck trying to enter our land, and the cabin is blocking the gravel road.

Mr. Pedie went home and picked up another piece of equipment; something that was strong enough to pull the payloader out of the soft ground.

Once free, it didn't take them long to bring the cabin up the hill and to where the guys had staked out where they wanted it to rest. Jim placed this one facing directly south, so we can utilize part of it as a greenhouse.

The boys sure loved all that heavy machinery!

Finally where it was supposed to be!

Our friend, Mr. Pedie, who so graciously and willingly helped us out by using his equipment to tow the cabin.

And a big thanks to our crew!

The Cabin Has Arrived -- Sort Of!

We'll have more photos later tonight.

The payloader bogged down on the new entrance the men made for the driveway, so the plan is to back things up and actually use our regular driveway entrance. The driveway has actually dried up enough that it may be better to use than taking the building through the field. We'll see.

More Moving Pictures

Here are a few photos from the guys' work yesterday:

Moving Day

It looks like the guys are ready to move the first cabin today. Jim searched for someone with a tractor to pull the cabin, but so far it hasn't worked out. However, last night a friend of Jim's who does construction for a living stopped at the camp to see how things were going, and offered to use his payloader to make the move. We are very thankful.

Here are some photos of yesterday's preparation work. I don't have time to explain what the men are doing in each one, but will do so after things settle down a bit.

Back to Business

I guess we are back to business on the farmstead.

For the past two days, friends have been here to help with a very big project. We were given four bunk houses currently located at a family camp about four miles from our farm, and the work has begun to try to get them moved.

Below are two of the four structures still in place at the camp:

This is a closer view of what the cabins look like:



I wasn't at the camp while the work was being done, so my information is second hand. Jim borrowed jacks and planking, and by late Monday night the men managed to move one of the cabins off from its foundation and onto the planking in preparation for a move.

Of course there were complications along the way. As the cabin was being jacked up the middle of the floor began to sag, so Jonathan and Adam had to crawl under the building to brace the area.

Yesterday the second cabin was even more complicated to move. I guess as they tried to jack up one side the wall became disconnected from the base, so they had to stop the procedure and now are trying to figure out how to keep the building together. These cabins are 20 feet by 30 feet, so it's no easy task. They will be such a blessing to have for all kinds of uses once we get them onto our property.

Work has stopped for a while, as there are other things that need to be done around the farm and our friends needed to go home to work on their own projects.

Another big factor is the mud.

We've had some very nice weather days, and now we are full steam into mud season. Our driveway is so bad that all the vehicles had to be parked on the gravel road and everything walked in -- the driveway is a quarter mile long, so it was quite a procedure for Donna and I to carry lunch down the driveway and into the vehicle to bring it to the work site. We had some very willing helpers, though, as the little boys were great to carry things as well.

At the end of the day Paul brought his Bobcat over and worked to smooth out the deep ruts in our driveway. We won't be driving on it for a while, at least until it dries out. Jim has plans to have the county come in and do some work on the driveway. Hopefully by then the area will have dried out from the warmer weather and windy conditions, and work will resume to bring the much anticipated cabins to our farmstead.

Is This Spring?

The day after we arrived at my folks' we woke to this:

It's kind of hard to tell what's going on, but it was fiercely snowing, and the robins that had just migrated to the area couldn't find anything to eat but my Mom and Dad's leftover crab apples!

A Memorable Trip

The boys and I returned on Saturday from a trip to visit family near Duluth, MN. We were originally scheduled to leave earlier than we did, but our area had experienced a snowstorm, bringing another foot of snow for us. We then decided to leave as soon as we could, since a second storm was heading our way.

Another factor for this trip was how we were going to cross the North Dakota/Minnesota border, since the Red River of the North was overflowing its banks. Originally I had thought we would travel through the Fargo-Moorhead area, since I am familiar with the roads and knew once we passed by those cities we'd be okay. Instead, after talking with a friend who lives in Grand Forks, we decided to head through that direction.

The photo below is of the Red River as we were crossing the remaining open bridge in Grand Forks. We had stopped at a gas station just before entering the city, and the manager assured us it would be an easy drive through. Sure enough it was, and I was very pleased. Grand Forks had built dikes, etc. to protect the city after they were devastated by the 1997 flooding, so they were confident they would remain dry. And so far it has.



Jonathan drove through all of North Dakota, and I took over when we hit Grand Forks. I was a bit surprised at how one of the front tires gave me the feeling that it was off balance a bit, but it stopped when we accelerated.

The Bartlett car made it as far as just south of Bemidji, MN when all of a sudden there was a tremendous noise and grinding sound. I quickly pulled to the shoulder of the road, and we jumped out to check for damage.

I don't know how it happened or why, but at 65 mph we had blown a tire.

I was very thankful I hadn't lost control of the car, as I had heard that could happen. We got out and the boys pulled out the donut spare tire we have and got busy unscrewing lug nuts, etc.

Soon a man in a van stopped and asked if we needed any help. The boys assured the man that we were okay, and I asked him where the nearest town was where we could purchase a new tire. Ours was now in shreds. He told us to turn around and head back into Bemidji, and gave us directions to a tire store there. We were very thankful for his stopping and for the information he was able to give us.

However, soon afterward we discovered the tire did not want to come off from the axle. The boys tried all kinds of things, but it just wouldn't budge. We had accidentally placed the scissor jack on the bumper instead of the side of the car and the car had moved, sending the jack off kilter and unusable. The boys jiggled with the thing for quite a while and finally got the teeth going where they should go, and then tried jacking up the car once again.



At least an hour had passed, and I sure was tired of seeing all the vehicles making a detour around us. It was cold and windy, and all of us were getting rather chilled. The younger boys and I had walked a ways back to look for the hubcap, but had no success in finding it.

Finally a man and his son in a pickup truck stopped to see if we needed help. I was thanking the Lord, as we had no cell phone and didn't know what we were going to do. The man gave all sorts of helpful advice, and got down where the tire was and tried prying it off himself. They did a few other things, and finally Peter was able to get the tire off. We all were very thankful.

After thanking the man for his much needed help he started walking back to his truck, and then turned around for one last question: Do you have enough money to pay for a new tire? I cried, because he was actually offering to pay for the new tire! I reassured him that I did, and he drove away.

The boys were then able to get the donut spare tire on, and we turned around and used the first man's directions to look for a tire store. Sure enough, we found it without any trouble.

The manager of the store took one look at the tire, decided which new one we would need, and got the car in right away. Within a half hour we were back on the road in the right direction toward family.



It was all such a lesson for me in trusting the Lord in trying circumstances.