Saturday, February 13, 2016

Electricity up to my house

The big news is I have electricity up to my house. I called Bryan and I hope he can come up next week to connect the meter base to my house but it is more likely that it will be the week after. I did call the Sissons and tell them the power was in and I also mentioned that I would pay for the two meter bases. I spoke to Judy and she was very friendly. I will call Danny at some point soon and see if there is any chance he will sell me a right of way. I heard from Anthony that my new truck should be in by the 22nd and perhaps as soon as the 17th. That is fine with me so I will miss the snowstorm coming in on Monday. I am very ready to switch to the new truck with all its safety features. I have put new soil in most of the greenhouse trays and mixed in organic fertilizer. I can plant whenever I want and that will probably be after the cold snaps ends. My classes are going pretty well, although I have two poetry students who have no idea what a fragment is and that must be addressed or I won’t pass them. I have sent out the Coleman application and I booked a room. The only problem is that I will have to set it up. It was in the low teens last night and today I took a short walk down to my favorite pine tree in low twenties weather. I work my tractor mask but it was still very cold. I have been practicing regularly on the piano and I certainly am getting better. The main thing is that I am having fun with it and that is the main purpose. I haven’t heard from Kelly in about 2 weeks but I assume she is okay and just busy. I haven’t heard from Gabes in at least a month (even though I have left a couple of messages) so I am not sure what to think. I do hope to heard from him at some point. I am supposed to see Claire Hall next week and that will be fun.

Saturday, February 6, 2016

Mud, Mud, Mud

Well, the heavy rains combined with the AEP work (digging a 24 inch wide trench then putting the conduit in then filling the trench) to really mess up my road. There was a 30 foot long near ravine (14 inches deep at points) near the gate and rutted mud everywhere else. I had to straddle the ravine when I got home Wednesday night and if I had slipped in I am sure I would have had to pull my truck out with the tractor. I got out on Thursday and finally on Friday morning I rode the tractor down with a bucket of 57 to start filling the hole and after I dumped it in (and it made no impact), I realized it would take all my stone just to handle this one part. Instead, I got 12 loads of dirt and filled it back in. I had the scraper on at 2.5 and that helped smooth things a bit but no close work can be done until it dries out a lot. My classes are going well and three weeks are done. Our move to the new building has changed again, so now it will be mid to late July. I asked Rosemary about my summer course and she said she should know by late April. Had a fun visit with Claire at the Next Door bakery. We chatted a lot and looked at a few houses in Blacksburg. She is excited about the wedding and about the possibility of owning a house. I should be getting my truck pretty soon and I should have the electricity done in 3 weeks so that will be a relief. Then I approach the Sissons about the right of way.