Update #3 Roads and Rocks

Are we done yet?

I was still waiting for everything to happen. Shoot, I was already picking out our paint colors and carpet. And the basement wasn't even dug yet. I was impatient, I will admit.

Perry assured me all in good time.
We had rocks to move and roads to build and a mining strip job site to reclaim.
And oh, boy, was there a lot of work to be done. About 50 acres needed to be worked on and "put back".

Part of the reclamation of the mine site that needed to be done

You should have seen what a mess this was when it rained!

This sloped area had been nicely graded from the ugly looking contour it was after the mining occurred. All it needed was some grass and a few trees. The deer loved to graze here now.

The one product (other than the coal) to come out of the property were lots and lots of rocks. Not just little rocks but rocks that were as big as vehicles. BOULDER galore and I was in Heaven! You see, in the Buckeye State I had to pay for rock. Yes, I know! Right? Here I had more than I could handle. I asked for truck load after truck load to be taken to the house site for use in landscaping. No way, no how was I ever gonna pay $$ for rocks again. You have heard of tree huggers? I hug rocks!

Little by little the road to the house site was improved and worked upon. It was graded and widening and graded again. Road plastic was laid down and gravel was put on part of the road.

                           In the middle stage of road work on this section

Prior to the big bull dozing event that was to take place for the basement,  we had to make a nice road to get us up there. We also had to put in a secondary access road. SO much dirt to move!

This is part of our driveway that leads up to the house site.It looked nice until the mining made a bit of a mess. Now we had to start fixing it or "reclaiming" it in mining terms. Like this area below.

Everything had to be smoothed over and fixed and it seemed ta take f-o-r-e-v-e-r.

 Grades had to be done to strict specifications and grass had to be planted.

Actually, it was sprayed on from a truck. I was afraid we would have to hand seed it. NOT! WOW!

This hill side being sprayed by brother in law, Scott.

Pretty cool, eh?

They worked and worked and moved dirt and moved rock.

Rocks? Did you know I have a love affair with rocks? I know...I mentioned that earleir.

 I blame my dad. 

He had me steal river rocks, errr...take rocks for his "little"  pond project way back when. 

I know what a pound of rocks cost in Ohio at a nursery! 

He is my role model when it comes to landscaping.

Anyway, as the work was being done, I asked them to once again, hold me back a few of the boulders. 

Hey, I'm from Ohio remember and rocks are pretty expensive when you HAVE to buy them. 

I wanted lots and lots of them saved.

 It was my mission to save them and use them in my weird landscaping way in the future.

Perry was good natured and saved me a bunch of boulders.

 So did Delmas and the other guys who worked the job. I am sure they thought I was a crazy lady but I'd be damned if I had to go to Ohio and buy rock for this house!

My little pile of rocks began to grow.

And grow....

and grow and grow.

I had some many rocks at the proposed house site that a secondary pile was started down below. 

I was in rock heaven.

They even put in a Sherri Henge for me in one field!
Wohooo!

Things were progressing. 

We also had figured out where we wanted the house to sit and what view we wanted to have.

We knew we wanted a western view from the prow, or front point of the house, and we knew that we would have a warp around deck. Every view would be nice but this one, the western view, mattered the most.
When we measured and taped the house site, is was in 2011.
We were married in 2009 so you can see what kind of a pace we are moving at here!

We had already measured the house perimeters and one nice warm spring day, went went up there with several rolls of orange tape and some stakes. We walked and measured and tied tape to show us the boundaries of where we wanted  the house to be.

 It looked small to me and I made the mistake of voicing my thoughts.

 "It looks so small" to which Perry huffed "Are you out of your mind?"

I learned to not think out loud.

Stay tuned for the next update!