mid-day update

The house has received the Certificate of Occupancy - so we feel more relaxed. We were already on our way to the house to check on progress when Ronnie called with the news. These pictures were just taken.

SuperDave used the big track hoe to bring the sand up the hill for the stone masons, shown here laying out the flagstone on the new front sidewalk. They had run out of stone, so Ronnie had gone to get more so they could finish that last bit in the foreground - and bring them a pizza because they still have to haul their water up the hill (We're trying to keep vehicles off the concrete until it has a few more days to cure.)

Below is a picture of our Rock Star SuperDave, working on the slope-erosion issue at the edge of the parking area of the drive. You can see he's balancing on the blade to scoop and move dirt and rocks from where it was piled next to the well (seen wrapped in insulation between the driveway and the trackhoe), uphill where he will create a berm. He had to take down two poplar trees, seen stacked on the left. One of them was already a goner. The thing on the driveway is the fiberglass imitation rock that our builder used to cover the well-head. Its "faux" paint job looks completely foolish with all the real rocks on the property - we hope between SuperDave and the landscapers, it can be a bit better camouflaged.

While we were still at the Big Level house packing, a couple of turkey families stopped by for a snack. I counted 20 while Norris was taking pictures. The photograph does not convey how close you are to them, or how large they are. For the first couple of years, it seemed like every time we went to our new development, called "Hawk's Landing" all we saw were turkeys, so we will probably see them in the new house too.