Basement Framing

The exterior walls for the basement have been framed and it gives a great look at the views that we can expect from the main floor. Take a look.

From the Bottom, Up

The sub floor is made of structural aluminum as shown in the picture. They did a great job on installation and luckily we were able to catch the plumbing mistake and move the toilet location before they put the sheeting over the top.

Barn Arrives in Parts

The barn arrived on a tractor trailor from Elma Washington and was unlaoded next to the building site. You can see some of the prefabricated parts as Ray moves the stair railing and the cupola top is sitting on the stack of lumber. As luck would have it I picked up the approved building permit from Douglas County the same day. Next step is to get the foundation in so we can have a barn raising as scheduled for October 19 and 20!!! Everyone is invited except those 7 brothers, the barn never seems to be in good shape when they are done.

Slow Going

Rock tells me I need to set my clock to construction time. It is a hard thing for me to do. The things that were supposed to be done on Friday were not. No one worked the weekend and then it rained on Monday. In the satellite business that is 3 lost days. In construction time that is the way it goes. I hope ray has the patience for putting up with me. Perhaps this is my own road to patience... or a heart attack.
After pushing week after week on getting barn plans completed we may have the plans into the county tomorrow and the barn parts delivered next week. Then it will be waiting for the permit. Great... more patience training.

A trenching we will go, high hoe and in ya go, a ...

IREA showed up on Friday to start the process of gettign us "on the grid". They are laying 1/0 aluminum underground cable in a 3 1/2 foot deep trench across the field. Dewey is checking out the depth. Rock came out early on Wednesday and mowed the grass down to make it easier and they have moved along rather quickly. They were half way across the meadow when these pictures were taken and about to hit a soggy spot. The crew got about 75% of the job done when the quitting bell rang for the weekend so they will be back on Monday and hopefully have us hooked up by noon. With all the other activity and the floor guys counting on power this one is coming down to the wire.

How Firm a Foundation

Well here it is. All that concrete in real walls. It looks extra deep since there will be a structural floor and not a poured slab of concrete in the bottom. The site is all preped to water-seal and put in the drains on Monday and the floor guys will be there to start putting in the beams as well if ... there is power. Hopefully it will be a busy week.

Barn Our Home Away from Home

Many of you may know that we are building a Barn on the property to house animals, teenagers, visitors, and maybe even us circumstances permiting. I've included the link to Uncle Howards website and the Gambrel barn design we are building. The barn raising is hopefully the last of this month but we will see what the county says with the permit. The barn site is just to the east of the house and will have a wooded setting with views of the south through the pines. The leveled site is shown in the picture. Mark Yocam and his boss (wife) Terry are in the picture.

What Comes in 9 Concrete Trucks ???

The answer is a foundation ! consisting of 80+ cubic yards of concrete. You can see the trucks stacked up on the road waiting their turn at the pump truck to fill the walls with concrete.

Unfortunately, Driver 1291 is not as happy as the other drivers. It is the Friday of the Labor day weekend and he is truck number 9 and .... he has broken down just 250 yards from the pump truck. There was 45 minutes left before the load was too hard to use and the repair truck was 5 minutes away when I had to leave to get to Bolder. As Paul Harvey would say, tomorrow "the rest of the story."

Hey! That's Not Building a House....

While the caissons were being completed and the foundation forms were being prepared we decided that a trip to Bermuda for our 26th anniversary was in order. Lora is teeing off from the #1 tee box at Ocean View Golf Course with the training ship "Spirit of Bermuda" in the background. Tough life.

Who Needs Huey and Louie...

The answer is: ... You don't when you have Dewey. This is just the start of the process but Dewey is on site watching it all happen to make sure things go just right. Even when it is just looking at the hole in the ground. I'm sure he'll end up in a lot more pictures but just thought you might like an introduction at the start.

Filler Up

The hole was dug and the caissons were drilled. John and Dewey were figuring out where they ought to start with the pumping rig and all we had to do was WAIT ...for the concrete to show up.

When it got there it was just ahead of the rain that you can see coming behind the truck. the professionals had rain gear to work with, ....the rest of us got soaked!!

Whole Hole is in the ground

The foundation diggin is complete and the cassons are being drilled and filled tomorrow. That should be exciting. There is a lot of dirt piled up around the site, much of which will be used to backfill around the foundation and the rest to build up the roads around the house. Mark Yocam has done a great job on the excavation.

Thanks to Becca for Blog Design

Many of you are logging on to the Blog for the first time since you only heard about it today!! I am sending out a mass e-mailer to let you know it is here! Thanks to Becca for having the idea, setting up the page, choosing a very nice color scheme and getting us all started.
Love you Becca.

Diggin a hole

Just this weekend we started digging the hole. The excavator is named Mark but the real work is being done by Coulter and Maryn. I think Maryn is more focused on the job at hand but Coulter may be having the better time. Lora is just giving us the perspective on the START of the hole. We have 6 more feet to go!

Road Needs a Name....

Construction on the project began in earnest with the start of the road construction. After months of planning it only took about 3 days to get the basic road in. Ray was down on site during road construction and called to warn us that the road will look really big for a while. Actually it is the smallest driveway that we are permitted to build. Many thanks to Mark and Vicki Tarallo for the easement and the help in getting a road that used the previous truck tracks so we could minimize the damage to the meadows. I think it came out pretty darn good. What do you think?

Lora is in charge of naming the road. Many ideas are being tossed around. If you want to influence her then give her a call.

The Flyin L&M Brand

The brand for the Flyin L&M Ranch is representative of many things.

The wings of course are for mom and dad, who not only made a career out of flying but gave each of their children wings of education, experience and enough love and support to allow us all to fly. The shield in the center is from a CTR ring. We hope this place is always a place of good choices and filled with the blessings that flow from them. The L&M is for Lora and Mark (not Lockheed Martin). Lora should always be first for the great wife, mother, nurse and person that she is.
Since this is a family project we are anxiously awaiting Lowell and Sarah Merkling sharing their talents in supplying a real Texas branding iron, so we can start burning this into things.

Design is the Key

Keeping it all in the family, Dennis and Rhonda Miller traveled to Colorado not once but TWICE to get the plans just right. It started on August 21st of 2006 and we were looking at final plans in April of 2007. Dennis looked at the land and took all he new about how we wanted to live and created the ultimate set of plans.

Dream of the LM Ranch

The saga needs to start with a heart felt thank you for the generosity and love of Dick and Anne Merkling who are making this all possible. We are blessed to be able to carry forward their vision and desire for a Merkling family ranch in the West. Through their foresight and then generosity we now have a 35 acre piece of heaven on which to build a place of gathering, service and serenity that we hope all of the extended and expanding family will be able to enjoy for many years to come.

The Start of New Adventure

The time is here! As you may know, we have started construction on our new home in Larkspur, CO; and want to make sure YOU get to share the experience with us. So we've started our own blog to share the joys and excitements of our new adventure! Please keep checking in, because we want all to know when we're finished so you all can come visit The Flying L&M Ranch!