Moon Dust and Peanut Butter

We got word today regarding what the soils engineer had to say about preparing our building pad for the foundation work. The good news: we won't necessarily have to dig out and replace the material on the entire pad down to two whole feet. This is because part of the pad area has quite of bit of naturally occurring gravel already in it. This is what good-for-building-on, gravelly soil looks like:

Lots of natural gravel -- yeah!

The good stuff is on the side of the house where the media room will be, but as you move towards the center of the house, the gravel disappears and the clay takes over.

Clay, as it looks when scraped with a backhoe and dried in the sun.

Now, I can appreciate a nice bit of clay when you are getting creative on a potter's wheel or making a sculpture, but as we have discovered, clay on your land is a pain in the hiney. It sticks to your shoes when it is wet (imagine a very thick, extremely heavy peanut butter coating your feet a couple of inches all the way around and you'll have a good idea of what it is like), bodes ill for well drilling, and is a no-no for putting stem walls on because it expands when wet, then turns to moon dust when it is dry.

"One small step for man..." The moon dust formed when dried clay gets mashed into fine silt.

All of the clay parts will have to be dug down and replaced with "imported" gravelly stuff. Jason has already started bringing up truckloads of the new material and heaping it around the site.

The "store-boughten" gravel is in the foreground. A hump of the evil clay dirt lurks behind.

Jason, ever the decent fellow, is going to try to keep the cost to $3000, even though we know he won't likely be making his usual rate on that. He is aware that everything so far has been going over budget, and he is trying to do what he can to help us out. The soils guy is probably going to cost around $600 when all is said and done, but all of this is necessary to ensure that the foundation will be solid.

Meanwhile, poor Michael got swamped with work emergencies on his "day off" (ha!), which left him with very little time to try to secure the well pump he needs to get the water going for Jason's compaction work. When he finally put out the various fires, he had to run hither and yon all over town to try to get what he needed, and of course, it ended up costing more because he had to buy it all retail instead of having the luxury to deal with suppliers directly. Here it is 9:00 p.m. and he is busy sorting well parts on our living room floor and the kitchen table. The stress is telling on him, and I feel pretty useless, as there is nothing I can do to help with all this well craziness other than make him a nice cup of tea.

Panther Kitty checks out the well parts decorating the living room floor. He would help if he could!

I have done a lot of work on other aspects of the project: designing the house, choosing things like flooring, cabinets, etc., but we're now deep into "man stuff" territory, and it is really best if I just stay out of the way.  While on site today, I found my mind turning to thick, clay-like mush when Jason and Michael started discussing the pros and cons of different ways to deal with the issues we are facing: e.g. digging out the whole thing and having to do more cement work vs. digging deep in some parts and shallow in others, yada yada yada.

Man Stuff: The Guys discuss the fascinating options possible for digging and cement work.

So, I left them to their deliberations and headed up to my little rock seat, where I tried to inhale some of the peace and quiet into my brain.

The South-East (I think) view from my rock seat. Smell the Zen!

While there, I noticed something blooming that I hadn't seen before -- a rather dry and dead-looking shrub incongruously bedecked with tiny yellow flowers.

Sweet-smelling blooms.

I wondered if these could be at least partially responsible for the sweet smell that has been wafting through the neighborhood air, so I went up to the bush and checked it out. Sure enough, it exuded a subtle but definitely sweet scent, quite lovely.

I also noticed something else that struck me as incongruous: a bright chartreuse-colored piece of moss growing on a fallen piece of deadwood below the flowering bush. One would think that our climate is far too dry for any kind of moss to survive, but I'm discovering that this high desert environment holds many surprises.

A little clump of moss where moss seems a mystery.

Later in the day, I went to the barn and re-wrapped Lido's leg. A couple of days ago, I had emailed some photos of the wounds' progress to Dr. Ruby, who said she was actually quite pleased with how they were looking. However, she, like me, is concerned about possible tendon injury. She said that Lido may have to be put on stall rest for at least 60 days if he isn't sound soon. Having seen how incredibly depressed he was with just one day of stall confinement, I know that would be just horrible for him. If it comes to that, I will make him a little "in-and-out" paddock just outside the stall so that he will at least be able to stand outside and see the boys and the world. Hopefully, that would be enough to prevent him from going on another hunger and water strike.

Dona was there today helping me with the barn chores and keeping Lido still while I did his leg, and we also had a visit from Becky and Skye, the Fairy Princess herself. She was sans wings today, but adorable nonetheless. She was very eager to help me with everything I was doing, so I got her to carry one end of each hay bin as we gave the horses their lunch, and she even held the big snow shovel for me (with a little help from Mom) when I was sweeping the stalls. Once the horses were eating, she decided that they would prefer to be hand fed than to eat off the stall floors, so she crouched down and gave each of them several handfuls of hay. We were careful to make sure her tiny fingers didn't get munched and that she wasn't in danger of being stepped on, but the horses were very careful of her themselves. The expressions on their faces (and Rogie's) made it clear that they are all as captivated with their new wee friend as she is with them. Sadly, I didn't have my camera with me to capture these special moments, but I'm sure she will be back and I promise to get some shots of her with the boys.

Skye was also pleased to have been made an "Official Rogie Auntie" today -- she got a certificate and everything.

Skye's certificate, which I of course signed to make it official.

I must say, I never wanted kids myself, but it is definitely a lot of fun to have them around sometimes!

So, today I give thanks to good friends, the beauty of nature, my wonderful animals, and a very charming little girl for how much they helped me to put aside the stress of a challenging day.

More soon!  : )