Friday Morning

It was a lucky day for us as Don and I BOTH got to ride along with Jim Dawson for an update on the construction.  We happened to see him while we were out on rounds early this morning so he invited us along for a ride in his truck.  I fought Don for the shotgun front seat and, of course, I won.  :)
The sewer line has reached its destination.  Now comes all the trenching to bring the connections from the home sites.
 
T-junctions 

 
Progress continues on the wall construction around the pickleball courts.

Our PC crew will finish their part of the job today.  Then the concrete company will take over for a while.

 
Faustino hard at work with shovel in hand. We like the new beard look, Faustino!

 
Fernando is always happy when he can be driving some kind of equipment.  I bet he had a lot of tonka toys when he was a kid.

 
The ditch witch machines will be very busy in days ahead to run sewer, electric, and communication lines to the home sites, ballfield, and court area.

 
You can see another completed concrete silo or manhole access farther back in this trench.

 

 
Work is quiet out on Cottonwood today.  Yesterday the police had the street blocked off so we couldn't turn right to head out to the mall.  We learned from Jim Dawson this morning that someone (NOT US OF COURSE!) stole something like 23 manhole covers along the roadways around town.  They had to block off some streets until the covers could be replaced.  Hitting an uncovered manhole would be quite dangerous!

 
We met Dan Steffey, owner of Steffey Excavating, while he demonstrated his newest piece of equipment.  It is a remote control compactor.  It compacts the soil at the bottom of the trenches so they don't have to have a man down there with the trench shoring in place.  It will be a valuable time saver.

 

It was interesting to listen while Dan and Jim discussed the four different type of soils they have encountered while digging in this area.

 
While Fernando likes to drive the tractor, he also helps with the heavy work.  Here they're hauling the concrete blocks to use along the wall and putting them in place for the other crew.

 

 
That pretty well sums up our construction tour for this morning.
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Yesterday when we went up to play cards, we found Gladys and Bob De Bonville working on a quilt project.  Bob was mumbling something about being roped into helping....but you know how men are.  He wasn't very anxious to have his picture taken.  Smile Bob. :)

Meet a newcomer to the office staff.  This is Linda who will be working part time at the front desk this season.  She is currently training with Angela.