I’m back!!!  I know you all have been anxiously waiting for the next letter. You know when you are waiting for the next episode of your favorite show, or an author to finish the next book? I know that is how everyone is feeling.. so I’m back to give you all your fix **queue the eye rolling emoticon**

Anyways…..

August was crazy! I actually had a solid update from two weeks ago, but we blessed James that weekend, and then last weekend I was lucky enough to go to my first quilting retreat south of Vegas! I can finally cross “quilting retreat” off my bucket list…. let me see.. where is that on my list….. well I’m sure it is on there somewhere near the top… but I can’t find it…..  

*Insert clever transition that I can’t think up*

On August 12 we had the repair guy come finally! The new gearbox showed up earlier that week.  He met me up on the land around 7a.m. and he got after it. It was a very cool process. Really wanted to do it myself .. but in the end it was really good I had him there (not surprising).  It was decently painless. He pulled the old destroyed gearbox out and put the new one in.  (only mishap was he put the new one in off 180° and tightened all the bolts down… (not a terribly big deal except that I had to pay $170 an hour for him to be there…. he had to undo all the bolts, flip it around and tighten it back down). There was a bit of an effort to get all the gears to line back up when he put the new one in. He had a hydraulic pump that he used to pressurize the brake so it would release and we could spin the gears to line up. Things like that I would never know to do. I think it was money well spent, he was finished by 11a.m. and was on his way. The excavator is FIXED!! Total repair: Part 6k, labor 1.8k, so $7.8K total … bummer… happy it is fixed though!!  Take a look at “Gearbox – Destroyed” vs “Gearbox – New & Replaced” pictures. 

I REALLY wanted to drive it, but didn’t really get to with James blessing that weekend. My dad, step mom and Grandma all came and saw the land and my dad, Andrew and I all got to drive it for all of 10 mins. 

Fast forward two weeks to this weekend. It was my working Friday weekend so we didn’t get to the land till about 5:30p.m. Upon arrival at the land, I jumped right into the excavator and got to work and did not stop until the sun went down. I also got up at sun up yesterday (6:30a.m.) and ran the excavator every second I could till we had to leave around 3p.m. It was a short trip but I definitely maximized the time I had there. 

I FINALLY got to clean it all up! When the excavator broke the driveway was a mess but still passable for a car. I cleaned the driveway up the ridge a lot and reduced the grade quite a bit. It is hard to believe how well it has turned out considering where it all started.

I also worked a lot on building up the driveway near the entrance. I need a little more dirt up that way but it is getting really close!  So happy I don’t have to pay for all the dirt and that the land had what I needed.  And the best part… when we left the land.. the excavator was STILL in a working condition 🙂 

Also, I had not finished removing the cliff face and making it a nice slope. I was able to get that all done!

So last note, our subdivision application went through the Weber County board this last week and was conditionally approved!  We don’t have the final plat complete and we also haven’t proved culinary water (our two conditions) but as soon as we get those two things in place it will be ready for a building permit! 

Until next week!