It DID rain really hard this weekend, especially Sunday.  But we are really thankful that the high winds that were forecast for both days did not materialize here.  The wind is always a very real concern, especially after taking out some trees.  When you take out these fir trees you change the wind dynamics and trees that have always leaned on each other during high winds may no longer have each other to lean on.
The rain continued today, so no work on the house.

We've had some guys from the frisbee team here yesterday and today, helping us pick up from the logging.  The logging leaves behind an enormous amount of branches: the slash.  Steve got a lot of it into piles, but there is always a lot that has to be piled by hand.
The rain was forecast to start this afternoon, and it did.  But we were ready; we'll see what happens...

We've never put the house plans up here for you all to see, so unlike us, some of you don't know what this structure is destined to look like.  That's an interesting realization!  Maybe we should, or maybe we should just keep you in suspense?

Well, it will serve as a hint to say that there are lots of locations where rafters will meet beams, and in some of those spots we will need to have big metal brackets to bolt the two members together.  Late this morning we met with Jay and David, our favorite metal fabricator and artist, to talk about what David might do to make something more interesting than a big black metal plates to serve as the brackets.  We brought sketches of what we need, and Jay will get back to David with the final details on the size of the bolt holes. Although one never knows what David will come up with after handing over a project to him, the results are always spectacular.  David made our front gate and the fire pit at the barn.

After the meeting with David we went with Jay to Jerry's to look at some of our window options, and then over to yet another window dealer to look at yet more options.  We're getting close to pinning this one down, just waiting on some quotes so we can do an apples-to-apples comparison.

Amazingly, after re-fueling ourselves we ended up with enough energy to go BACK to Jerry's to look at light fixtures and fans there, which we had not yet done.  We were tuckered out by the end of the day...

We started out the day by trying to go for a walk before leaving for town for dentist appointments and a list of tasks.  One of us didn't have rain pants on, and between that and the fact that the rain was so heavy for Oregon, we were promptly well wetted, and turned back.
Jay showed up about 9 a.m., ready to receive his lumber delivery.  But the delivery was pushed back, and so he and Norman took off, planning to return at 11 for the delivery.  We had to leave for town shortly after they left.

We had a long list of homework for our town trip: we had to go shopping for lighting and windows and plumbing fixtures, as well as huge tarps for covering the house once there is enough of it up to put the tarps over. 

OMG, window shopping is the worst.  We ended up mostly baffled.  We had much better luck with the plumbing; found a shower enclosure and the coolest kitchen faucet with motion sensors.  We got lots of ideas about lighting, but it was very overwhelming too.  Some people love deciding about all these details and picking all this shit out.  They are a special breed!

But we missed the real excitement here at home.  The pouring rain continued on for quite some time.  Apparently, by the time the lumber delivery came, the new bulldozer-trail-dust-road had turned to -as it's known in some circles- gorilla snot.  The truck full of floor joists pulled in to the area we have been using for access.  All was fine until he attempted to move forward to re-position himself.  At that point he began to lose traction.  You've seen this spot a dozen times in the pictures: it is the area just in front of the huge pile of soil that is now covered by the black plastic.  It is almost imperceptible, but there is a slight grade to this area, sloped toward the foundation.  As the truck attempted to move with he began to slide sideways, as he tried harder to move he slid more sideways, until he ended up at an angle to the foundation, with the super-long floor joists hanging off the back of the truck up AGAINST the foundation.  The had to be unloaded by hand, in the sloppy mud.  Not good.  You do not get in the good graces of the delivery guy this way.  Damn, if we had known, or thought carefully about it, we could have gone over and roped off the road, to make sure nobody tried to use it that day.  But it "never" rains like that here; we don;t get real rain, we get drizzle.  I suppose it is still "summer" though, and we do get the occasional heavy summer shower.  It was just a very long one on this day.

So Jay tried to pull the truck out with his 4WD diesel truck.  That didn't work.  I guess the lumber company sent another of their own trucks over, and that one somehow pulled out the first one.  Jay guessed this was a three hour ordeal.  Oh boy, not good.  We'll have to get more details after everyone has recovered a little more, from the trauma.  We better figure out something nice to do for these guys!