New World Datsuns...

The new place is keeping you busy Jess, Coming along good.Must love the open space there.

I really do. I'll post up the latest adventure later tonight.

Excavation guy kept pushing dirt all day. Got the elevated part of the driveway all leveled out and to full width. Fire marshall requires 20' wide with a hammerhead turn around at the top. Kinda overkill, really. You could land a 747 on it.

It's a good 4-5' above ground level now and doesn't have gravel down yet. All that dirt came from the top of the hill where the house is going.

He also got the approach to the garage roughed in as well as getting close to grade for the house.



At that point the soil engineer came back out for final approval. His recommendations were pretty straightforward so hopefully it'll be ready for concrete by the end of next week. Hopefully.

Local color post; Went for a little ride with my dad and some of his friends on Wednesday. We left Poison Creek just past the old stage stop and rode out across the border into Oregon to Succor Creek canyon.




On our way back we made a detour to the homestead and gravesite of Spanish Charley.

I don't know if it's historically accurate but legend goes that Charley was a shepherd living in a valley above Succor Creek with his sheep. There is water in the lowland at the homestead but it dried up in the late summer. In order to get his sheep to water he was forced to cross the corner of someone else's land. That land owner warned him not to do it again. Unfortunately his sheep still needed water and the next time Charley attempted to cross, the neighbor shot him dead. A couple days later the neighbor went in to town to turn himself in. He was later acquitted.
Lesson? No trespassing means no trespassing. (We had to jump a fence to get pics)

About all that remains of the homestead was 3 stone structures. Obviously several fires have gone through over the last 130 years so the only artifacts we saw were broken pieces of an old stove. Might be an interesting place to use a metal detector.

The most impressive thing to me was the stone fence that had been stacked. It went up one hill to the rock outcropping, down the other side, then another section beyond the next ridge. I would conservatively estimate 2-3 miles in length. Most of the stones were basketball sized or larger. I guess when you're living in the middle of nowhere in the 1800s there isn't much else to do. You may have to zoom in on the last photo to see it in the distance.


This is looking down into the valley from the homestead spot. Succor Creek runs through the bottom.


On the way back there were about half a dozen water crossings. I stayed dry until the last one that was deeper than it looked. I was in 18-20 inches of water with my legs up when my engine bogged and I had to put both feet on the creek bottom to keep from falling over. Oh well, I was mostly dry by the time we got back to the loading spot. The loop was only about 50 miles so it made a great 1/2 day trip.

Well, it officially feels like fall now. Was 28* when I got up this morning with plenty of frost on the ground. They shut off the irrigation last friday so the canals are drying up. Smells like campfire from the wood stoves in the area.

Also, my scaredy-pit has been trying to back into my lap for the last half hour because they're duck hunting over at the neighbor's place.


I think I love fall in Idaho.

I'm sure I love the scenery. Our first "cool" day is today. High temp of 68°. And the sides of the driveway look like fantastic dirt bike ramps.

Haha! That, they would be. That'll all be smoothed down in the end.

Why did they grade what looks like the whole field?

Also if you keep the place you are living in now you could use that as a place for friends to stay in when visiting.

Mostly just the perspective of the photos. But when he carved out the side of the hill the dirt had to go somewhere. Much of it went to build up the wide-ass driveway. It's wide because the fire marshall requires it -- not because I want it that way. Some of the rest was pushed to the downhill side which will double as my septic drainfield and back yard. The remainder was set aside for later placement. A lot of the field has been disturbed but its not really graded. Once the pasture grass grows back it won't be noticeable.

As far as the mobile home goes, the county will only allow one house at a time. I'm okay to build the new house but they won't issue an occupancy permit until the mobile is disconnected from utilities. They prefer that it's moved out but as long as it's not being lived in I could keep it here and use it for storage I guess. I'd rather sell if for a few thousand and have it moved out, and here's why.
1. While it won't sell for much, it'll free up a little cash to put toward a new shop.
2. I don't want my useless parasite mother in law to think I've got room for her.
3. It's pretty much sitting right where I want to build my shop.
4. Since there will still be a septic system, electricity, and water service, I want to put in an RV pad for any friends or family who might be passing through. That would be behind the shop under the trees next to what is currently my front yard. It'll be a really nice spot.

I realize I get kind of long winded in some of my descriptions. Sometimes I think it would be way more helpful if I had a drone so I could just take aerial photos and draw arrows.

I get it, is there a cement pad under the mobile home right now?

Don't think so, never been under it. The "foundation" is all enclosed. There's an access panel but I've never opened it up. I suspect it's blocked up on piers of some sort.

I guess it depends on local laws, when my dad put a manufactured/mobile home on a lot in Longbeach WA in the 90s he had to have a pad poured for it to go on/sit on, then the lower portion was enclosed once put in position.
He also had a pad put in to park the car on with a cover coming off the home, but getting to that pad was gravel.

Cool story on Charley.

Looks like paradise, away from all the crazies in city life.

Those are nice shots. I get to drive through stuff like that driving 219 out to Newberg in the mornings.

Yeah. When I was growing up my best friend lived in Newberg. We both did plenty of responsible driving over that hill when we first got our licenses. Idiots.

Is that your neighbors property?

I'm standing pretty much where the basement under the master bedroom will be, about 30' from the North property line. Neighbor to my north has about 50 acres that ends right about where the fog rolls up.

Another uneventful week. Excavation is done to this point provided it gets the A-OK from the soil engineer. Was hoping to have results back today but never heard from the contractor. If things keep going as scheduled we should have some concrete poured week after next.

The Compound still hasn't closed. It's scheduled for the 1st but just got word that my buyer is an illegal and may have tax issues. FUCK! So, hopefully it can all be worked out. Otherwise I'll likely pull it off the market until spring. My realtor sucks.

To get my mind off of all that nonsense I did another day ride in the Owyhees with my dad and some of his friends. We unloaded a few miles into Silver City road and took trails from the south up to War Eagle then over to Cinnibar. We got to about 8100' at Cinnibar. That's almost a 6000' climb from my house. As close to a perfect fall day as can be expected. Mostly clear and in the 60s. We saw snow but didn't have to ride through any.

The third photo is a narrow single wide track, not wide enough for a 4 wheel ATV, so there is more than one way up the hill.
When you started posting photos of the area you live in I started thinking about all the times I flew in Idaho, we would launch near Moore ID and fly towards Challis ID some days, stick to hiway 93 and head towards Salmon ID, I made it half way to Ellis ID before I turned around with my tail between my legs and headed back to the Challis airport to land, that year I won the meet, the year before my friend Mike won it, the locals were getting mad about all the visitors winning their meet.
I remember seeing all the small lakes up in them mountains and how cool it would be to hike around up there, I also was soaring Borah Peak waiting for a thermal to come thru to get me higher to cross to the next mountain range ahead of me to get me closer to Challis, it's really rugged up there with desert in the valleys, there doesn't seem to be a happy place in the middle to live in.
I have landed at the midway airport, at the Dubois airport, within a mile of Challis twice, and a few times on hiway 93 heading towards Challis, it's a fun place to fly if you have a driver.