Rankin Family Website

Week 3

(3.5)Monday July 9, 2001 - I got about another 50 feet of drive cleared of trees. I spent most of my time smoothing out the last 200 feet that I cleared this past weekend. I pulled out boulders half the size of a car and pushed them to the side. I will take some pictures when my camera comes in so you can see how big they are.

(4)Tuesday July 10, 2001 - I decided to go to my day job late and meet the gravel guy out at the land. I spent most of the morning filling in the larger holes with rocks so I don't have to fill them with gravel at $135 per truck load. I ordered 10 truck loads to start with and will get more later when necessary. I just need to make the road where I can drive a truck on it for now. I spread out the first load of gravel and got another flat. That is why I have a spare. I changed the tire and went to work. I will start spreading gravel tomorrow. Hopefully we will get the porta-potty delivered today. I also got the bid from the builder I talked with a while back. His name is Branson Fustes and I think I will use him to erect the panels and frame all the interior. He is currently building a SIP home in Austin. Check out his web site if you are interested.

(4)Wednesday July 11, 2001 - I had about 110 yards of gravel delivered and I spread about 40 yards today. I also spent some time leveling part of the road before I spread the gravel. I didn't clear any trees since I am working with the gravel. I want to get the road passable via truck. I should have plenty of time to finish that this weekend. I plan to work all day Friday.

(3)Thursday July 12, 2001 - Well, my digital camera came in yesterday and I hooked it up this morning to try to download some pictures and it is not working. I got a response from tech support that stated "the camera does not work with NT." I did however get it to work with my computer at home so I will keep it. The resolution is not so good but it should be fine for this web site. What can you expect for fifty bucks. Anyway, all I did today was do some maintenance on the back hoe.

(11)Friday July 13, 2001 - Today was a good news bad news kind of day. First the good news: I reached and cleared the house site. The ground is still very rough with a lot of rocks. Now the bad news: I locked my keys in my truck at 6:20am at the gas station. I had to call Patti to come and bring me a key. Thanks Patti. The other thing that happened was that I got another flat, this time on the front tire and it was not capable of being repaired, I would have to buy a new one.

(7)Saturday July 14, 2001 - I started the morning by trying to locate a tire. I called several places and found one about 50 miles away. I called another place and they found one in Wimberley so I got it replaced. I started work after lunch and got the rest of the gravel spread out so I could drive to the house site with my truck. I had to move a lot of rocks and spread a lot of dirt to get it smooth enough to drive on. I started excavating for the house site and soon learned that the back hoe is not suitable for digging in this kind of rock. I bent one of the hydraulic cylinders on the back hoe while digging in the rock. I guess I will have to find another one this week. I hope I can find a used or rebuilt one. I will still have to get a jack hammer to dig the footings once the bulldozer levels the site. I will try to have some pictures to show you tomorrow.

(0)Sunday July 15, 2001 - I took a day of rest today to recoup. Tomorrow I will start looking for a new hydraulic cylinder and a bull dozer for hire. Here are some pictures that I have so far. They are not in any particular order and the quality is not so great either.

Week 3