We went down today to feed George and take some more bedding down. Also had a nice surprise! We have more than a trickle of water! The toilet filled up again in less than half an hour and there is water at the kitchen faucet. Not much pressure, but it is an improvement!
Looks nice and clean too! Hope this will do us until we get the pump in!

The fridge went Kaput here in Cathlamet, so we had to go down and get the one at the house. Thank goodness Heather and Adam were here so they could help. Brian had to work! The road was partially flooded just past the Rosburg bridge...but we made it thru okay. Visited with and petted and fed George!
The road at Altoona is really sliding, but they had added some fill so the bump wasn't as bad. Made transporting the fridge a bit easier.

Have been down to the house quite a few times in the past two weeks. Checking on George and working on the water system. Still no water, so we are going to have to replace about 800 feet of line. Not what we want to do, but it will give us some much needed water. George loves it down there and is a great cat. Saw lots of geese on the road near crooked creek this last time. Always something new!

Well we went back down and tried blowing the lines with air and water for over two hours but still did not get any more water pressure! Very frustrating. We may have to lay new pipe on top of the ground if we cannot figure out a way to fix this problem. But one good thing....at least there was enough water to flush the toilet! And George loves it down there! He is now the official Dahlia House cat!

We just finished spending the weekend down at the house with Jahn, Em and Madi. The weather was crisp and cold but no rain so working on the water system wasn't as bad as it could have been. They were still very wet and cold when they came back down though! The system that Brian built to put in the stream works! He worked on it all week after getting input from Adam and Heather. So we think we have a trickle of water. The line seems to be partially blocked somewhere along the way, but a little bit is getting through. They blew it out with the air compressor quite a few times, but still no luck. Brian is going to go back down and try it again this week. This time with a generator to keep up a steady volume of air.
Madi and I took walks and played on the computer and fixed the meals for the hard workers. She even went up and helped them for a while. I spent most of the time vacuuming up zillions of ladybugs! Blech!
It was a great weekend!

Went back down to check on George and work on the water system. It was a perfect fall day. Crisp and cold and lots of gold leaves everywhere.
George is doing fine! He loves it down there and follows us around inside and out! Hope he is getting those mousies!

Adam & Heather & Zach came down last weekend and I watched Zach while the rest went up on the hill and worked on the old water system. Boy were they cold and wet when they came back down! But a little bit of progress was made. Hopefully we can finish it this weekend! Sure would be nice to have water.
Took our cat George down there! Hope he is going to discourage the mouse population! Go get them George!

Went down to the house to check things out and make sure all is okay before we leave on vacation. We saw a herd of Elk ou in the field just past Crooked Creek and then we counted 27 deer before we got to the house.
While we were there an Eagle flew over and Brian whistled at it, and it whistled back! That went on for a few minutes until it flew on! WoW! Way to go Brian!

We have only had time to make quick trips down to the house to check on things, water plants etc... Too much going on! Summer is passing by quickly and soon fall and winter will be here. So much to do and so little time.

We rented the back hoe again and Emily and Jahn met us down at the house and helped us to try and dig the ditch from the well head to the house. Not so easy!!!! The ground is so rocky that it was really hard to do! Could not get the pipe to go under the road so we will have to cut into the road at a later time. We did get the line dug from the house about 1/2 of the way to the well. Brian and Jahn took turns running the back hoe and the rest of us filled in the ditch with sand, water line and electrical cord. We also used the back hoe to get supplies up to the old water system to get ready to dam it up again. A frustrating day as we did not get as much done as we wanted to do, but it is a start!
Madi and Unah were there too and we all took turns going down to the beach with them. Wonderful sunny day! And they really enjoyed the water!

Went down to the house today to take a few things down and to visit with Richard and Marda and Kelsey. They were staying in our trailer for a few days. They are buying Phillip's property. Nice to have the property stay in the family! They will be great neighbors. Richards sister Liz and his Dad, Richard Sr. were there too so we had a great visit and gave them a tour of the house in it's state of "deconstruction".

Wow!  What a successful work party!  We accomplished so much more than I ever thought we would!  I put lists up in each room of what need to be done and the kids just dug in and ripped and tore and pulled!
 
The old poolroom has been stripped of all it’s old paneling and ugly 70’s flooring. The floors are awesome old fir!  Looks great!  (Thanks Heather and Adam!)
 
The front hallway and the stair have been stripped down to the bare walls and floor too.  Found a lot of damage near the front porch that will have to be repaired. And we found a door!  It used to go into the front parlor! How cool.  We are starting to see how the house once was, thanks to Adam, Colleen, Heather and Em!
 
In the kitchen we also found two old doorways.  One leads into the bathroom, the other into the bedroom.  Not sure why?  We also found some neat old turquoise paint on the lower part of the wall and a creamy yellow on the top.  The kitchen is talking to us now too! One of Brian’s cousins came up from California and helped us get the wiring figured out in the kitchen.  We now have lights again.  (Thanks Ben and Nettie)
 
One of the big jobs was getting the Gazebo moved into place.  Whew, we all sweated that one out.  But Brian directed and Jahn drove and it is now sitting on the lawn where we want it.  Next step is to lay the foundation and get it off the trailer.
We also got some bricks cleaned off and moved around to the front to put the base for the steps in. (Thanks Colleen) We also got a lot of building materials moved around and the yard cleaned up.  (Thanks Jahn and Em)
 
The granddaughters Madison and Maliah even helped a bit by packing stuff out to the garbage!  And helping to paint the steps to the beach. Thanks girls!
 
We had visitors on both days.  Cousins Fred and Marianne stopped by along with Marianne’s daughter Vera and her daughter A____(I knew I would forget her name! Sorry!)  Bob and Trixie Elliott stopped by to visit and bring a yummy grape salad to eat!
 
And of course my Mom with all of her yummy Irish bread kept us well nourished and she also tried to clean up after us!  (Thanks Mom!)
 
And………….we finally found water!  After two dry holes, they came up with what looks like good water down across the road.  Kind of far away, but at least we have some!  More work to go to get it up to the house. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ !
 
We had great fun visiting with family and friends.  Lot’s of good food and conversation.  It was a great weekend!

We got down to the house about 1:00 today and they were hard at it in a new location down the driveway, but after 100 feet...no water! Tomorrow they try down across the road.
Got a few things done today to get ready for the workparty.  It should be a great weekend.

The well driller Art McMullen called and we met him down at the house today. It was exciting to see them get started....but as the day went on and no water was found.....it got very depressing!  They were down at 140 feet where the well witcher said to dig...NOTHING!  He is coming back tomorrow.

Brian and I and Colleen and Maliah went down to the house today to take down a load of new furniture that we bought for the house plus a lot of other little things. Moved some stuff around getting ready for the work party coming up next weekend. Maliah flew her new kite. Still waiting for the well driller to call!!!

Went down to the house today to meet with a guy from Home Depot. (Igor) He spent about 5 hours showing us samples and helping us design the kitchen. Wow! It is an awesome design! But not something we can afford to do right yet. Over $14,000!!!! We will have to see if it fits in our budget someday! Brian also mowed the lawn and I unpacked a few more boxes.
Only 2 weeks until the work party. We have so many things to get done!Must make lists!

We have been down at the house for the last two days. We rented a back hoe and Brian spent a good amount of time moving an awful lot of dirt!!! We managed to dig a lot more out of the back yard area, to create a level spot to dig the well. He also smoothed out the lawn and did some filling in where it was needed. I tore down more paneling in the front hall and worked on unpacking boxes and organizing stuff. A very busy two days for both of us!

We had the witching done today by Carl Blunt. Interesting process! He was able to mark a good spot for us! Brian and I both tried it and only when he held the stick along with us did it work! He said he has located over 300 wells and over 80 with the this latest stick he uses! Now to get the well driller down here to see how deep we have to go!

We were finally able to spend two nights in a row down at the house. Unfortunately Brian caught some sort of flu bug, so did not get very much done, but was able to get all my scrapping stuff upstairs in the office and get it all organized. I even started the Memory Book for the house with sample of wallpaper etc...Did a lot of cleaning and sweeping upstairs. Tried to do quiet stuff so Brian could sleep.
When Brian started feeling better, he went outside and worked in the yard for a while, got the lawn mowed again! It seems to grow a foot every week!
Art Mc Mullen came down and we are going to get him to did the well starting mid month. But first we have to get it witched! How nice it will be to have water of our own and not from Richard's property.

We went down today (May 11th)and mainly worked in the yard. Brian used the DR trimmer to cut the lawn (it looked more like a field), and I picked up rocks and lumber etc, and moved it out of the way. Also did a little bit of landscaping. Just made it look like someone lives there and cares what it looks like.
Worked inside the house moving things upstairs and organizing the office. So much to do!