Dave's college friend Mike Rethinger and his family came to visit!
Mike and Sara came to our wedding in 2015. This time, we took them out for some great fall adventures, including hikes and hot springs.
Our first hike was to crystal clear Deep Lake off of Warren Wagon Road.
Dave photographing us.
We rented two cabins at Burgdorf Hot Springs for a couple nights to enjoy the backcountry and several soaks in the hot springs.
Dave relaxing in a hammock.
We set up the yard game Kubb and all took turns playing and watching.
The second day's hike was up to Josephine lake off of Warren Wagon Road. Incredibly colorful!
Mike, Sara, Gray & Piper.
Outdoor adventures were top on the list because they live in Atlanta but love getting out in nature.
After a fun week together, Dave and I enjoyed some walks in town before our property work began.
The colors had started turning in the city, not just up in the mountains.
We went back up to the Secesh Summit to fly our drone and capture more of the autumn on camera.
The time had come for us to begin our planned excavation work to install sewer service. The photo above shows how far Dave dug down by hand to try to locate the sewer connection point.
We burnt wood that Dave had cut in August while waiting for our equipment delivery. A sheepherding dog in the area came by to hang out near the fire.
We rented a tracked skidsteer and excavator from Cascade Rentals.
They arrived at the end of the day, but we worked a while to get familiar with their operation.
Dave took the skidsteer and dug a path for our driveway, and I moved logs that he had cut in August in the excavator and piled them up out of the way.
The following day, the excavation work began. All in all, we had to dig deep and long: 7 feet deep in some places and 150 feet in length.
This photo from our drone shows how long and complex the excavation was. The road is on the bottom right hand side of the picture with the white equipment trailer. That is the hook-up area and we took the sewer pipe up to our building site on the left hand side of the photo.
Dave busy checking depths, locations and ensuring the pipe would be level once laid: a difficult task.
We had a beautiful surprise while working! The sheepherders moved their flock out of the mountains and down the road past our property. We have always treausured watching the sheep flocks being moved.
Sheep behind the equipment on West Mountain Road.
I always love the tail end, getting to see the horses and sheepherders themselves.
The last animal in line.
The work involved taking a few directional turns with the excavation and pipe to accommodate our neighbors' illegal well/sewer placement (to make sure that our work was legally far enough away from theirs, which was installed against code.)
My view for 12 hours a day: the excavation itself and Dave ensuring that we were level.
This was one of Dave's egress points, a ladder. You can see the other ladder at the street end of the excavation. He saw mice, frogs and Idaho salamanders!
Once the sewer pipe excavation was complete, I could begin other construction work while Dave glued sections of pipe together. My first task was spreading gravel on our future driveway and making it smooth.
Second on the list was flattening a space up near the top of our property for an outdoor fireplace and seating area.
Once that area was flattened, I could begin hauling some of the large rocks our old neighbor gave to us to use as a retaining wall up there.
In the meantime, Dave fitted and glued together the plumbing for our sewer line.
Some of the rocks were too big for the skidsteer and had to be dragged up by the excavator. So fun!!!!
Once we ran out of rocks to place, we decided that I should talk to our neighbor down the road and pay him cash for some of his large rocks to finish up our landscaping up top. It was a great idea and bargain at $300 for the truckload.
They were delivered down low on our property and I spent the rest of my time with the rental equipment hauling them up and placing them into position one by one.
This is what the top of the fireplace pad started to look like.
In this picture, you can see the lower retaining wall as well. It's still not fully finished as we ran out of time, and a handful of rocks remain down low on our driveway.
This is what the excavation work and plumbing looked like from inside the trench.
We ran a pre-test to ensure that we would pass the upcoming tests. We're glad we did as we had to adjust some of the sections to make a tight seal
Meanwhile, winter began to threaten our operation with a generous dumping of snow in town. I have on the scarf Grandma crocheted for me and Dave the hat I just made him this summer.
Our property with the excavation, pipes and snow.
The day of our test and two inspections, we had a beautiful day so I took a warmup drive to photograph Cascade Lake and the golden Tamarack pine needles.
Both the State and the local inspectors came by and passed and certified our work. We were incredibly happy and relived because even one day later, we wouldn't have been able to pass the water pressure test because sections would have frozen and been deemed inappropriate results so late in the season.
After passing our test, we rented a skidsteer for a day to be able to fill the trench back in for the winter.
We took turns operating it and warming up. It's incredible how we finished up exactly on the first day of winter!
The night we finished, I went out with my friends Jenny and Annie to the Sushi restaurant as a goodbye to Annie who moved to Washington. This is Annie's favorite dessert there, milk toast with vanilla ice cream.
That coming weekend we attended a celebration and demonstration of this art piece in our local park which mimics the old logging mill's steam powered whistle. It was so cool to see and hear it!
We also took a walk to and around Ponderosa State Park where we saw plenty of deer up close.
We also saw some beautiful colors in the aspen grove and decided to fly our drone there to capture it.
2022 Christmas card image.
We went back to our property to ensure everything was winter ready. Dave cut and capped the sections of pipe that were sticking up and we flagged them so that we can find them easier in the spring when there's still a pile of snow. We also burnt some roots and sticks and checked on the two trees that we relocated.
Dave also cut off sections of a larger tree that we felled to get it out of way for the sewer. We used them to decorate our patio for the winter months with boughs.
Our walks in town by the lake certainly let on that winter was coming.
We went to Boise for a few nights. Originally it was because I had booked an outdoor concert. When they moved it indoors we decided to skip out on the Covid potential. Instead, we visited our friends Julie and Adam for dinner. And I took a long walk by the river with my friend Grace. Boise was still in full autumn foliage, so it was a great change for us.
Autumn was incredibly colorful up in the mountains, with the huckleberry shrubs blood red and the aspens shimmering and golden. We're lucky that we got to spend two weekends at Burgdorf Hot Springs, both with our friends from McCall and then again when our Atlanta friends came to visit. We got to go on some incredibly beautiful hikes and truly had a blast getting our work done on our property. Operating heavy equipment feels thrilling and joyful, like being a child again at play. Love you.
