HAMMERING, SCREENING AND COMPACTION

Evan doing some hammering

We had hoped that Evan would only have to do a small bit of hammering ... we were wrong.  The good news is that we will have plenty of rocks for when we build our gabion walls. 

Lots of rocks!

We knew there was a large outcropping of rock located within the footprint of our build site, but we weren't sure if it would interfere with any of the buildings.  Well we are happy to report that The Boulder, as we are calling it, sits within the confines of the courtyard and gets to stay!

The Boulder

Tom and Jeff took some time to figure out the final pad elevation.  And in the process outlined the patio.

The view south from the house and the patio outline

With the lowering of the final pad elevation we will not have to import any material for the pad.  In fact, Evan was able to screen the material he excavated, separating the soil from the rocks, and at the same time begin the compaction and leveling of the pad.

The screening 

Leveling and compaction

In an effort to cause no unnecessary harm, we transplanted some of the biggest and smallest cactus from the build site.

A couple of Barrel Buddies and a Pincushion

A girl and her Saguaro 

MEETING OF THE MINDS

The Meeting

Friday the 10th of April we had our first big on site meeting.  The construction foremen from Hayes Construction were there (Tom and Jason), along with Ray our architect and Evan the excavator.  This is a rather unique project so getting everyone on the same sheet of music from the beginning is paramount.  Our vision statement (stolen from Patagonia) is as follows:

Build the best product

Cause no unnecessary harm

Inspire and implement solutions for future environmental sustainability

This was our opportunity to express to them our vision and to see how the excavation was coming along.  We started to map out all the areas needed on a construction site, such as where does everyone park, where do the port-o-potties go, etc.  These are actually important decisions as we want to limit the amount of native landscape affected by this project.  As we suspected, Evan confirmed we are building on top of a giant rock and thus he will have to do quite a bit of hammering with his excavator.  We also 'stringed' out all the building perimeters (house, casita and garage) so that we could get a better picture of exactly how they will sit in the real world.  Good thing we did as we rotated the garage 10' to better align with the driveway.

'Stringing' out the garage perimeter

The Casita will be at the base of the Palo Verde tree 

The first big pile of dirt

CONNECTING THE WELL TO THE TANK

The next step in getting the well operational was connecting the well to the storage tank located on top of the hill at the house site.  Jeff helped John our well guy lay pipe for the water and conduit for the float switch wire from the tank down through the ravine to the well.  

The water pipe and conduit going through the ravine

John connecting the water pipe to the well

At the end of the day the control box was installed on the well and  the pump successfully pumped water up to the storage tank.  Now we are just waiting on the installation of the solar panels and we'll have a working water system.

A little Hedgehog cactus eye candy!

BREAKING GROUND

Take a deep breath, here it is ... 

The excavation begins April 7, 2020

Evan the excavator demonstrating his delicate touch to save the Ocotillo

The end result after a morning of work

WELL SOLAR PANELS PHASE I

The first step in getting the power to the well was installing the infrastructure for the solar panels which will supply the needed electricity.  Chad and his crew supplied the labor while Jeff provided the "supervision".  

Trench for the conduit

The first step was to dig the trench for the conduit from the solar panels to the well.  Then they dug the hole for the solar panel support pipe.

Chad working his magic

We needed to get to 58" and wouldn't you know it, we hit a big rock at 57".  The hole was widened a little and in went the pipe and the cement.

We promise he got out before they started pouring the cement! 

The support pipe is plumb and ready for the concrete

In goes the concrete

THE WELL PUMP

The pump going in the well

The first step in the journey began with the installation of the well pump.  Lucky for us we already had an 850' hole (thanks to Chip the previous owner of the property) in which to put the pump.  

The hole

Pulling up one of the 20' sections of pipe

Our well guy John brought his rig in and installed the pump at the end of 400' of pipe.  He measured our water level in the well at 171' so we should have plenty of water.

We have water!

AND SO IT BEGINS!!

An aerial view prior to breaking ground

(photo by Andrew Hayes 27 March 20)

After years of dreaming about it we are taking the big step of starting construction on our straw bale homestead.  Our hope is that we can use this blog to allow family and friends to share this incredible experience with us.  Enjoy the ride!