716,126,400 Lbs.

July 23rd, 2009 is an auspicious day in our family's history... We are now the proud stewards of 40 prime acres in Ferry County, Washington!!! Everything was signed, notarized, paid and recorded as of yesterday. In a jumble of tears and laughter with butterflies fluttering in my stomach, I relayed the telephone conversation to Tom. Can't believe he could understand a single word uttered! Then it was telephone calls to family and friends with the good news. Mrs. Minor, the dear lady we bought the land from, is thrilled for us, as well, and wants to follow along on our journey.

When Tom got home from work, one of the first things he said was: "I wonder how much dirt we own now?" That's a veteran dirt mover for ya! So, just how much?- 3 ft. deep, 1/4 sq. mile, at 3,699 lbs. per cubic yard... 716,126,400 lbs. of dirt... 358,063 tons. That's a lot of dirt! As well as trees, water, wildlife, big blue sky!

This is a major turning point. No more if's. Now the heavy work begins. We have a telephone meeting with a state certified sustainable architect/designer next week to go over our needs and move forward getting our house plans together for the building permit application. Exciting!!! In mid August, Tom will go for a weekend to survey for lay out the driveway from the front 40's easement to our future building site, the south meadow. We hope to have some preliminary work done- timber and road cut. Then, the end of September likely, we'll go camp on the land for a week, get a feel for it, design a site plan to submit with the plans for a permit, also Tom will put finishing touches on the driveway.

There's those butterflies again!

Photos (not the best, but they're all we have at the moment), also property line starts at the base of the hill (dilapidated building is not on our land!), all views are from the county road:
- above is view of length of property from north to south (left to right) with the spring and draw in the center.
- below is south section with meadow at top of hill (future building site)
- bottom is the north section with another meadow at the top.