Barbara, Matt, and Ashlee are adding rock to the check dams on the last stretch of road to the top of the property.  In the foreground is a roll of straw matting, used to hold the grass seed in place.
 These banks on the right are going to need some care...later.

A lot of mat has been set out.  You can see the good coverage we have on the lower fill side of the road.

Matt with yet more mat

.The project seems unending.

Electrical conduit tubes are in the background

A couple of supervisors.

a couple of workers.

Gathering up tools, dogs, and soon Barbara and me.

It is starting to rain and we are going.

Hopefully it will be a good steady drizzle to pop that seed, sans wash.

Working the land

We had a flash flood and some erosion on the sides of our new road   We have been working to fix the problems.  The hillside banks are raw so they are getting grass seed and matting.  It has been raining with some regularity and we are hoping that the seed will sprout and the grass will live through the rest of the summer.It's a bad tome to be planting grass.

Hauling rock in the Kabota.  This will be used for checkdams on the side of the road to slow down the water.  The road is steep and the water flows fast.

Everything is hot.  The weather, the rocks, the worker. 

Respit from the heat.  This pipe, which was put in to help control storm water runoff, has at the other end a spring.   The water has been flowing for over a month now, ever since the pipe was set, and the water is cool and tasty.

Sunset View

After my soccer game last Sunday, Tiff and I took the kids up to the property to watch the sun go down. We were glad we did, it was so beautiful!

Driveway, check!

One huge part of our infinite to-do list on this property is complete. There is now a driveway in place. Vehicles can drive to all three of the building sites. This is very exciting to me, because I can now take friends and family up to where Trip and I will eventually build a house without a strenuous uphill hike.

Next on the to-do list is the shed being built at our garden site. The views are phenomenal from this spot, but there isn't a shady place to enjoy them from. Because of this, the shed will also have a porch to sit and rest on. I plan to spend a lot of time rocking on the porch while everyone else works in the garden. I'm kidding (mostly).

There are a couple garden beds in front of the shed that Barbara has already planted vegetables in. We've got asparagus and tomatoes growing, among other things. The plan is to build many more beds like this throughout the garden site.

The vineyard will be on one side of the garden. It is hard to see in the picture below, but there are grapes planted where the orange flags are.

The apple orchard will be on the other side. Here is one of several of the apple trees that have been planted.

Trip noticed that we already have neighbors. Check out how big these bear tracks are!

And finally, here is a photo of all the Kinnaird men taking a scenic tour of the property on the Kubota. What a motley bunch!

Long overdue update

Here is a picture of what the view looked like from our property back in February:

This is a "before" picture of the garden site also taken in February. John, Barbara, Trip, Matt and Ashlee have put in quite a bit of work here since then and have begun building a shed. Pictures will go up soon of the shed and what the garden site looks like now.
We fell in love with this property the first time we saw it back in November. Right now, everything is green and it is so much easier to see the possibilities. I am excited about living up here one day. Also, the driveway is almost complete. Current pictures coming soon....