Beginnings - A Dirt Road

We spent last weekend at our property in Montana.  We were very blessed to have Luke's aunt and uncle come from California to bring us a load of building materials to help us build a house. (Thank you, J & C!)  Also, we rented a backhoe on Sunday and Luke's uncle made us a road!

We were thinking of putting the road in a different spot, but Luke's cousin found a better spot. He started the road by sawing down the trees in the way.

He was nice to chop it into sections. We put Jordan to work sawing the limbs off and rolling the logs to a level spot for splitting.

Luke's cousin was determined to get the trailer close to the building site.  He got the trailer stuck trying to turn the trailer around on the narrow road. They had to jack up the trailer and put boards underneath to get it unstuck. Then, the guys unloaded the trusses so it wouldn't be top heavy.  And he drove the trailer down this little clearing.

 

Then Luke had the idea to rent a backhoe from town. His uncle has backhoe experience so carved us out a road! Here he is breaking ground.

And making the road.

We were so excited to have access to our property! The road leads to this spot:

Which is where we will hopefully build our house. The other spot we had picked out was too low to allow for proper drainage for a future septic system and too close to a dry creek bed and in a potential flood plain. Which means we will have to pay for more excavation. But, the good news is that the soil is not very rocky in this spot. We dug an 8' or 9' test hole and did not hit bedrock - a nice easy hole to dig - with a backhoe that is!.

This is 100 ft from the creek and the house will be another 10' from here. I am so happy it worked out this way! We are tucked back in just a little more and have a nicer view.  We met with a few contractors and I am so glad we did.  Their suggestion to consider this area was a good one.  We also got quotes on the excavation and foundation work that needs done. This was more than we thought it would be, so we will not be able to put in a septic system this year, or drill a well.  So, our goal is to get the exterior part built so that the house is dried in.  We would also like to install a wood cook stove for now. Then we will finish the interior as we can afford it. So, building our dream homestead may be a slow process!

I got to explore a little more this time and enjoyed seeing new things growing. I saw several of these thorny canes along the creek bed.  Does anyone know what they are?

Here are some pictures of us camping and playing.

Luke's parents and his aunt and uncle's grandchildren (Luke's cousin's kids) joined us and we had a picnic lunch on Saturday and then Saturday night, we spent some time around the campfire.  The kids had a lot of fun. 

The morning after we came home, we woke up to this:

The crab apple trees and lilacs were in bloom.  I didn't know the bushes next to the house were lilacs. I love lilacs! The air smells so pretty!  

Our grass is starting to come in too. I reseeded it this spring and put hay down. It will be nice when we rake it and mow it in a few weeks.  We really are enjoying where God has put us.  It is even nicer knowing that we have land that is less than 2.5 hours away that we can enjoy. Thank you, YHVH!