Footer poured

Today the footers were poured for the house. I drove up from lake with Philip and Jane to see the land late in the afternoon. Next they will begin laying block.

Solar Power and Water

Well I've been looking into what it would take to provide solar power and water to the house. Needless to say I have a lot to learn.

As far as solar power goes it's still very expensive and difficult to make it cost effective. Payback on a system can range from 10-15+ years. The nice thing though is you are not dependent on anyone for your power needs. There's something to be said for that these days. Hopefully we will at least have a small system in place that we can grow over the years.

Water seems to be a little easier and somewhat cheaper. Since the land has several creeks running through it a pond would be a nice addition with a pump to provide irrigation. Harvesting rainwater is also a thought. You can harvest rainwater to run your toilets as some irrigation. With proper filters it could be used for drinking.

Hopefully in a few years when I can look back at this post and see "how easy" it was to install a sustainable water and power system.

Landscape for house

We met with Ricky Pope who owns Haven House in Alexander City to help us design the initial landscape for the house. He suggests using boulders to create a wall down to the pool area and after the pool area.

Our idea was to use stacked rock but boulders may be more practical and probably look better.

Russ and Laura came out and saw the house site for the first time.

We drove up from Destin then turned around and drove back home. Long Day

House Plan and Rear Ideas

Here is our current plan with pool and basement

Land Clearing

Clearing the Land of SirJager

In late April 2010 we began clearing our land (53ac) in Elmore County. The land is very unique in that it has hills, pines, hardwoods and several creeks. As far as clearing we pretty much cleared the pines, which were small, off the hill where the house will sit. This was probably 3 acres worth of clearing.
We also cleared the pasture at the bottom of the hill and a narrow strip of  pines east of the other clearing. We left all the hardwoods which are growing around the creek area.
The far east of the property is another hill where we just thinned the pines and cut a few roads.
The clearing took about a week. Charla and I were on hand for much of it around the homesite and bottom pasture. David Woodall also helped out.
We had a logging company clear the land. Not sure how many loads they got, maybe 20 or so but at least I get paid a little for them. ($150 load?). Rodney Griffith, the gentleman, who I purchased the land and an excavator was also on hand.

A real tractor

Just purchased a real tractor today. Not a farmville one. Got the Kubota L4240 on a good deal. Dwood is going to pick it up for me and keep it at the shop until house is built.