Our trip down to the Mid-Atlantic states was good though there was a lot of rain with the remnants of Ernesto passing through.
We spent Thursday before Labor Day at my Aunt Jane's in New Jersey and then went down to Philadelphia to visit with Caroline's mother. She is doing well though Jim, her husband, is on the long downhill slide. We only saw Jim for a brief time.On Saturday we headed back to New Jersey and attended a party with most of the family since Judie was in from Washington State. The only sibling which didn't make it was Donald but we at least got to talk to him from Georgia. After the party on Sunday we headed back to Vermont. It seemed like we were gone for a long time and it was great to sleep in our own bed again.
On the Waterville front things are moving slowly forward.
I got my injuried tractor back before our trip. Fortunately it wasn't as bad as feared (only cost $500). Could have been a lot worse. We've been working on various areas of the properties but mostly concentrating on the Sawmill shed. At this juncture we have gotten all the posts in, have started getting the hardware on top of the posts, though that is a slow process. We have found we need to chisel down the pressure treated posts a bit to fit the hardware on. In the case of the first post we put it on we still haven't managed to get it all the way on. There has been a lot of pounding with sledgehammers. The posts are probably six inches lower than they were though that is something I really don't want to know. We added some crushed stone to the center of the shed area today and will hopefully get more in over the next couple of days. 
I'm also digging a trench for a perimeter drain to try and catch some of the runoff from the hill above the shed before it gets to what will be the roofed area.I don't think we will be ready but there are a number of friends coming over Saturday to check our progress and to help if possible. I would love to be ready to raise the first bent but I just don't see how it will be possible. We have tomorrow to get things done and still have a whole bunch to do. We actually have the posts ready for the first couple of bents but we don't have the lumber for the rafters. It has been hard finding 16 foot logs which are straight enough to saw 6 x 6 out of them. Ideally I would like to get the first three bents up in rapid succession since they get tied together with 13 foot purlins. They should be relatively self supporting once the purlins get placed. Of course that means sawing out quite a few 2 x 6's for the purlins.
Our brush pile continues to grow as we are moving branches etc. out of the area which has been designated for the "cabin" and it's associated leach field. There is still quite a bit of clearing to do, hopefully before the contractor comes to put in the leach field. There is no way I wanted to try to accomplish that job.
There are a couple of big pines which have to come down before the leach field goes in so they don't hurt it later, or fall on the cabin.It is difficult to show the cabin activity in pictures. It looks mostly like mud with some trees interspersed. I think it will be nice if it ever gets finished.
On the subject of what has Jerry convinced Caroline to let him buy now; we are getting a new tractor to compliment the current one. It is going to be another Kubota, a model they call a L-39. It is setup to be a good backhoe and loader machine which is something the current tractor just hasn't been good enough at. We will probably keep the current tractor in Hyde Park most of the time with the new one being in Waterville. We have a lot of digging to do over there with me planning all sorts of projects and Caroline cringing.
In case anyone doesn't know today is Caroline's birthday. I'm afraid it wasn't a real exciting day for her but at least she got to get muddy which is always a highlight.
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