We found the well!

Today Bryan and I went back to the property to take a few more photos and to deliver a letter to our new neighbors; we want to let them know that we're finally actually going to build and give them an idea of what to expect and when. So far, we know there will be a backhoe on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then not a lot of obvious change until February.

While we were there we started wandering, following a similar path to the one I took on Friday when I took most of the pre-clearing photos. This time, though, we started looking for the well. Yes, one of our wells was hiding somewhere in the dense shrubbery, and we do actually need to find it and to clear a path to it so it can be tested for potability and flow and, eventually, used. I had a decent idea of where it might be, since the boys and I visited the site when the well-digging equipment was there in 2006. I remembered going down the "road" along the western edge of the property and it curving around a bit. Now that road is thoroughly overgrown and mostly impassable in parts, though. Bryan and I approached it from a different angle, from the east, under the stand of firs. We could make out where the road was, and where it curved to the left. We could even see where it made a U turn to where the digging trucks had been parked. But that whole flat area where the trucks were was completely covered in a dense, prickly tangle of scotch broom (in itself easy to manage) interspersed with overgrown blackberry vines (ouch!). We picked and pushed and trampled and crawled and ducked our way through, sometimes only inches at a time, trying not to be stabbed, slashed and snagged by the blackberries. We were thoroughly unprepared for this adventure! We had come to the land intending only to take photos, so we had no clippers or tools of any kind. However, with a great deal of patience and perseverance, we actually found the wellhead! Well, Bryan found it; by that time, I was ready to turn back -- but he'd gotten the bug and was bound and determined. I think it helped that I was confident that we were looking in the right area, especially after we found the winding road. (Cue the Beatles song.)

Lo and behold, the wellhead is literally in the farthest southwestern corner of our property; it must be only steps from the property line, as our down-the-hill neighbor's yard was a few yards away, and the lot just to the west of us was even closer.

Somehow we managed to escape with no major injuries and only a couple of hearty "ouch!"es. Even those were only at the end, when we were growing weary of the whole adventure (and my thighs were fatiguing from crouching through so much underbrush). We'll know tomorrow whether we managed to escape without any poison oak; when we got home we thoroughly showered immediately and washed our clothes (only slightly damaged from blackberry snags).

And we found the well!

The wellhead.

The tangle of bushes we fought through to get to the wellhead (just behind me).
Too bad we didn't know there was an easier way!

Bryan hacked the rest of our way out with a large stick.

Pictures from the wilderness ...

Our property from the entrance looking east.

Entering the property. The black tube on the left is our electrical connection. The pile of debris on the right was left by the owners of the adjacent land (we assume). It may or may not be on our property; we can't find the property markers and need to resurvey.

The valley view from the northwestern edge of the property.

There are clear animal trails and scat across the property; this is one of several places where the deer bed down. I hope they return when this is all done!

I love the ferns, but they will be an unavoidable casualty when we clear the land. I'm assuming (hoping) they'll grow back. There are more on the land.

Standing in the middle of the land (more or less where we will build), east of the entrance, looking back toward the entrance. I just trekked through these bushes.

Looking south from just below the build site. Despite the blackberries and poison oak, it's so picturesque! 

For more photos of the land in its wilderness state, check out my Picasa album.

I think it's really happening ...

After a summer of interviewing lenders, architects, builders and design/build groups, we settled on our crack build/design team in September and had our first official meeting on Oct. 13 (and actually handed over money!). We have ridden a roller-coaster of a learning curve during this process so far, and we haven't even started! Just imagine how knowledgeable we'll be by the time it's all over ...

Although we've owned this land (off and on) since the late 90s, I never grasped what a great lot it is until this summer when we were showing the land to prospective builders and designers. I think I'd just never been there on a day that wasn't severely overcast; most of the time we visited in December, when we were home from Asia for the holidays. As it turns out, our view is awesome: mountains in the distance, a beautiful sunset, a valley laid out below us. Who knew?! It's exactly what I wanted and didn't know I already had. On top of that, the "ridge" part of Pumpkin Ridge is perfect: We have a slope that is apparently ideal for building a daylight basement. This can help us add square footage at the most reasonable possible price. Thank goodness! Given what we're trying to build, we need as many economical advantages as we can get. Because what we're trying to build is a seriously energy-efficient (passivehaus at the most ideal) home, as ecologically friendly as possible, with an open floor plan (for 13 family members at a time), a dedicated office, a dedicated guest room, and space for the boys and their friends/cousins to play. We can fit this into a reasonable-sized home (we're thinking up to 3000 sq ft), with good planning -- but our budget may not allow for that size of home with the kind of building practices that are important to us. And this is why we took such care in choosing a good team that works well together and understands what we're trying to do.

Today, Bryan and I met with one of our architects, Rick (Scott | Edwards Architecture), plus two guys from our building company (Hammer & Hand), Mac and Mike (easy to remember those names!). Our goal today was to figure out exactly what part of the land will be cleared next week. (No trees will be removed for now.) On Friday (Nov. 4), we're meeting with Sam Hagerman, our primary contact and founder of Hammer & Hand, Rick and Sid (Scott, of Scott | Edwards Architecture) to figure out where we want to put the house. We have a general idea, of course, but the house design will depend on knowing more accurately where it will face and what topography we're working with. No doubt this will be fine-tuned as time goes on, but it will give us a good starting point. However, the land is currently thoroughly overgrown with blackberries, poison oak, scotch broom and other shrubbery; it's quite an adventure to try to explore the land right  now. (I do like the ferns, though; I hope they grow back!) Today we braved the flora and figured out what area will be cleared on Tuesday and Wednesday. This includes not only the top part of the ridge, the flattest part, where we plan to build, but also the "road" (and I use this term very loosely) down to the main well, which was drilled in 2006 but is currently lost in the wilderness. We tried finding the well today, but the bushes were just too thick and prickly to get through.

A wonderful side effect of clearing the land is that we will no longer have to wash our poison oak-contaminated clothing and any exposed skin the moment we return from a visit up there. (I'm hoping that I managed to avoid contamination today, but only time will tell.)

I'm getting very excited -- and still nervous at the sheer scope of this project.