The Ups and Downs of Fulfilling Dreams

What a journey this is! It is, at the same time, incredibly exciting, and incredibly stressful. Although I shut down my studio months ago due to health issues Don is still running his Small Dog Handyman business while we build. He is so stretched and being the kind of man he is his customers needs always come before his own needs. I have tried to pick up some of the slack but having been so disabled by advanced neurological Lyme for the last 12 years that I am not able to help as much as I would like to. Due to the extra work I have taken on I was having increasing pain levels and yesterday it came to a head. I was having great difficulty walking even with a cane and I felt very ill. My Dr felt that I was having a Herxheimer reaction on top of doing too much physical activity so I have cut back on on my meds and activity.

To complicate things further we got a call from a very upset neighbor (again) and we need to go up there today to smooth some ruffled feathers. Unfortunately building a house is a messy and loud process and that is very upsetting to some people. We can certainly understand this and we will do our best to assure this neighbor that soon peace and order will be restored to the area. It is just an added stress for us constantly worrying that the noise, dust and smoke are upsetting this neighbor. After all the last thing we want is to disrupt someone's life while we build.  All of the other neighbors have been so uplifting and supportive so when my anxiety levels rise about the upset neighbor I am just reminding myself to offer up gratitude for all of the other amazing neighbors and their excitement for us and our project. That does my heart good.

Before my pain levels totally grounded me I took some photos of the drilling rig arriving. This is the rig that will drill the blast holes for the foundation hole. The are starting to blast today but unfortunately I don't think I will be able to go up there unless there is a dramatic change in my pain soon. Hopefully I will be better by tomorrow and will be able to see some blasting then.

On a brighter note when we laid out the position of the house we were able to get it facing closer to solar south than we thought we would be able to. Solar south is 15 degrees east of magnetic south and you can still get a really good solar gain another 15 degrees from solar south. We were able to position the house only 5 degrees off of solar south.  I am thrilled with how sunny and bright the building site is turning out to be!

I have had a chance to explore more of our 36 acres and it is so breathtaking. I am absolutely in love with the land and all the diversity these woods have. There is still  huge area of the property we have not even had a chance to explore yet. Something to look forward to in the near future!

 Don patched up the area where the machines came through and made a rustic stone wall that fits right in with the landscape. 

 Down in back of this access roadway they are working on the septic, which is a mound system because of all the ledge.

 Here is another shot of the septic in process. One of our neighbors said it looked like an indian burial mound. LOL

 Here comes the truck with the drill rig on it! What an odd looking machine.

 This is the rig that will drill the holes for blasting out the foundation hole.

 I am thrilled with how sunny our site is turning out to be. The house site has great southern exposure!

 The driveway is starting to look more like a driveway!

 The very loud and dusty process of drilling the blast holes!