My brother Matt used the box cutter to scrape and smooth the front yard dirt mound.  The chickens jog behind the tractor looking for fresh bugs!

Gee!  Crusty is still here!  "Tomorrow" it will be hauled away!

Then Matt dug the trench with the ditch witch for the new telephone line.  It goes right across where crusty was.  He and Dad got the conduit installed and the phone guy came today to put the new line in!  Wish we could say it's the last ditch we need to dig...

 My buddy Billy came to visit and he knocked down the pile in the back yard!!!!  The chickens loved that one! 

Then he ran the disc attachment around the whole area to break up the compacted soil.

Mom bought a nitrogen fixing cover crop to seed all the exposed soil.  This will hold the dust down and provide organic matter as we mow or till it in.  She spread the seeds and was fortunate enough to have a mule-boy to follow along pulling a board to lightly cover the seeds.  Now a couple weeks of watering!

 There were no dead bodies under the double-wide, and no cache of Indian artifacts.  What we did find was 4, 66 ft long concrete footers that concrete blocks stood on to hold up the house.  Dad and Matt were breaking them with our tractor and sledge hammers, when an Elk Creek miracle occurred and Jim drove by on the backhoe and dug them out and broke them up for us!!!

We were left with a very heavy pile of concrete debris and had no idea what to do with it.  

Then, the miracle continued when our excavator from up the road offered to take the pieces to widen a section of his road, and sent his dump truck down.

 It was challenging loading the heavy pieces into the bucket of the tractor and getting them into the truck.  The dump truck was 8' high and the tractor bucket goes up 9'.  Slow and steady we got 'er done!

Mom has been attacking the 3 year old pile of compacted topsoil and now finds herself in a precarious predicament!!


Also, still looking at half of crusty!  It's going to be moved "tomorrow"!!!

After many "tomorrow's" the new owner finally wired money to the trucker, and the crew showed up yesterday.  They pushed half of the house back (with the help of our tractor pulling).

 To avoid hitting trees they then pulled one end of the house around to get it aimed down the road. 

 They parked the first half in the field so we can look at it until more money is wired to the trucker.  Then they pulled the second half down and parked it while they cut the roof overhang back 6" (with our saw).

After all the lights and signs were attached half of crusty headed out the front gate narrowly missing the barn roof.

Mom and Dad celebrated!!

How do you like our new lawn ornament??!!!  It has funny smells when you walk in between the two sections!

The guy who wants "crusty" is having a hard time finding someone to move it.  His regular guy may be having truck trouble.  The guy in Medford might be able to do it for him, but not sure on the cost.  The metal roof overhang is 6" too long!  The roof has to come off, be trimmed off, or it will be a "superload" and need flag trucks front and back.  The Dept of Transportation tells them what route to take, and when.  They don't want it on the road Easter weekend--don't want to run over any bunnies!

Oh well, keeping busy mowing, maintaining mowers and tractors, and moving dirt!

Well, the guy who was going to haul Crusty away didn't have a buyer.  So we put it on Craigslist.  We also had to spend a few hundred dollars at the county getting it retitled and recorded.  We had a few callers from Craigslist, but as they say, "it only takes one"!  We got a call from "2nd Chance for Mobile Homes" outside of Portland.  They looked at it on Sunday, knocked out the cinder blocks on Tues and...

cracked it open so the light shined through on Wed!!!
Oh yeah!  One half should be on road tomorrow!

First, I want to let you know that I did get the salmon flu.  One morning I hesitated for just a moment before eating my breakfast.  The folks noticed that, took my temperature (it was high), took me to the doctor's, I got a shot and some pills, went home and never missed a meal!!

My brother Matt is visiting.  He's helping with a bunch of chores.  He and Dad took the power line down which provided power to the double-wide.  Yea!!

 Dad found a guy to haul the rusty, crusty away!!  We pay him $2500.  If he gets someone to buy it he'll reimburse us.  Even if we don't get reimbursed, we figure we can't salvage if for that price.  We have just a couple weeks to prep it.  Matt and Mom dismantled the back porch.  Plants have to be moved; the chain link fence will have to be partially taken down. 

 Mom has been taking the front porch apart

Meanwhile the ditch witch rides again!  The guys are digging the down-spout collection system (trench, pipe, etc).  Once that is done, the rest of the dirt pile can be moved and the landscaping can start!

Did you know that I love shoes?!  I love to steal them and leave them throughout the house!  Every morning me and Osker steal Mom's slippers from beside the bed.  Every morning she gets up and has no slippers and has to walk out barefoot and say "where are my slippers?!!"  We wiggle and wag!  It's great fun!  So for Christmas we bought her new slippers with my likeness on them!

 Since there are no more inspectors stopping by, we started working on turning the "unfinished attic/storage" into living and guest room space!  Mom sanded and varnished the beam, has primed, and is painting the one room.

Weather is nice so we decided to trench in the last water line from the storage tank to the new house!


A guy is coming today to see if he can haul the old double-wide away!