Heavy Equipment, Heavy Rain and Heavy Lifting. Go, Team YIPPEE!
May 15, 2006

Hi again Team,

We are coordinating for another task that must not involve Cassandra. In other words, Chris needs helper(s). Sure,... in theory..., he could do a lot of it himself. He did, after all, successfully transport the 12,800# of delivered cement up hill all by himself! But, theory doesn't always prove out as successfully as that event did. Anyway, here's the task: transporting materials from Poocham house over to the site. We plan to get the flooring boards, plywood, deck boards and maybe even the yurts outta there as soon as footing work is complete. So, the tenative plan is for the weekend of May 27-28. We realize this is Memorial Day Weekend and coming up soon. We could push it off a week if that works better for having help. We do need to move the materials outta there soon, but realistically, tis probably better to coordinate for having the help.

The footing work had to be rescheduled for the next weekend. Why?...

Rain, rain, rain! And then more rain. We're having deluges upon deluges. Fortunately, we did not have any delugions (oops, make that delusions!) of still getting the footings done this weekend. We were not happy about having to cancel, and then reschedule, the equipment rental and our lined up helper. But, fortunately, there were no snags in re-lining up either. (Go, Team Jere! Thanks!) And, we definitely made the right choice! The ground was already wet due to almost a week of drizzly, wet weather. The hard rains started on Thursday night. They have yet to let up as we write this on Sunday.

We are happy to report that Cassandra's ditches are holding and performing their intended function. The water is flowing fast and furious, but at least its flowing through the ditches and no longer washing out our land/excavation work. There are a couple smaller areas she hadn't quite finished that will need work once this rain ends. However, the flooding there should be minimal and easily fixed due to the related ditches being in place. Don't know whether the recent seed planting will be so lucky, be we'll find out soon.

We are also happy to report that the bridge is holding up. Yeah!

So, the schedule and request:

May 20/21- auger and cement work, May 27/28- tenative move of materials from Poocham to site June 3/4- alternative date for moving materials from Poocham or other construction

Please email or call Chris to coordinate any assistance you can provide.

Thanks!

PS- We've added a new little feature to the website, "Cassandra's Phone-Cam Capture". The phone service is not so reliable, but the new phone can take and send pictures (when there's a signal, of course!). It doesn't take the greatest pics... because, after all, it's supposed to be a phone(!)... But, nonetheless, it has been a neat way to share what's been going on at YIPPEE-land when Chris is away during the weeks. And, he's now working on getting a section of the website up to share some pics with you all. For now, check in at the front page to see the latest pic. Eventually, historical pics will be available too. Enjoy!