Quiet Friday

Activity today seems pretty quiet compared to the rest of the week.....except of course up by the sewer trench.  Plenty of action here.  Pipe is being lowered into place and concrete being placed around it.  Now you can see that trench shoring being put to full use.

 

 

 

 

 
The rest of the park is pretty quiet so I'll spare you the dirt pictures for a change.  The landscapers are still busy trimming the palm trees.  They do approximately 125 trees a day until the project is completed for the year.  Here is a link to a video to show the chore in action:
Trimming the Palms
We salute the hard work of cleaning up the debris!

We haven't seen our owl perched at his normal house for quite a while.  When we drove past this morning, however, we could see an owl peeking out from the sheltered corner.  He then came out to check us out.  This appears to be a juvenile as he's smaller than the one we're used to seeing.

Yes....you get another owl picture but I don't have a cactus flower for you today.  That will keep Don quiet for a while.

Update on Construction

I got another ride out to the construction site with Jim Dawson this afternoon.  How exciting to be part of the action.  You readers are responsible for this because your feedback makes the blog popular. 
 
The earthmovers are smoothing out the area where the six new homes will go along the edge of the golf course.  Many of you saw the two model homes already installed at Sites 1958 and 1957.  The next six will be 1956-1951.

 
Across the street from the golf course homes will be three blocks of other home sites.  This is all part of this phase of development.

 

 
How exciting to see it all come to life.

 
The surveyors are busy out there communicating with the equipment drivers as to the exact depth and grade for the land where the sites will go.

 

 
Lasers and GPS units are operating.  Some even directly adjust the blade on the big truck.

 
Preparations are also underway to put up the brick wall that will surround the area at the edge of the property.

 

 
There will be a six foot concrete wall along this line.

 
Here's a nice shot of the sunken pickleball courts.

 
Here they're cutting the rebar and getting ready for the concrete.  Concrete should be poured within the next two weeks.

 

 

 
Yes, that's Fernando out there digging the trench for the fence with Ernesto working the GPS for depth measurement.

 

 
They insisted that Jim join them for a photo.

 

 

Then we drove up to the north gate area.

The sewer lines go down 19 feet where they connect to the main sewer.  I learned that the cage equipment down in the trench is a safety device called trench shores so if the wall of the trench should collapse, there would be a safety space to protect any workers.  As the shovel extends the trench, he drags those cages along the path.

This trench will be dug all the way down to where the new houses are being built.  It will gradually get shallower as they progress providing a slope for run off.

This is an exciting time to be here!

P.S.  Thank you for all the birthday emails I received!



Happy Birthday to ME!!

Surprise!!  I walked into the card room this afternoon and they leaped up yelling SURPRISE!  Somebody blabbed that it was my birthday today.  What a wonderful group of women!  I treasure their friendship.

We even had ice cream cake from Culvers!  It was fantastic.  What a wonderful way to spend the day.  Thank you one and all.

Now back to business.  Took some more photos this afternoon because there is so much activity up there near the north gate.  They're digging a HUGE deep hole for the sewer lines.  Quite something to watch! 

  

Edie Preis was at the scene also.  She was trying to take pictures with her cell phone to send to her grandson.  Sooooooo.......here is a picture of Grandma to show the kids back home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another Day

Hi Gang!  Check out the cool photo I received from Jim Mays.  Jim is an avid remote control airplane enthusiast and has a camera on his plane.  He took this picture from about 50 feet up over our construction site.  Thank you, Jim!!


Today's activity is definitely centering around the back gate where they've dug out this huge trench for what I believe to be the sewer lines.

As we were watching, we saw some heads appear from down below so we know the trench must be pretty deep.  Can't get too close though because we would definitely be in the way.  Lots of equipment in the area today.

APS is here in force working near the big electrical boxes.

 

Today we did our observation from the deck of Site 24 thanks to the invite from Dave Love.

This puts us directly across from the new softball field.

 

 

That's the pit for the sunken pickleball courts off to the right.

 

We spied Popkorn over at Wes Mitchell's house so had to stop for a quick photo.  Hi Guys!  It was a pleasant 90 degrees and only 20% humidity so sitting out on the patio is quite pleasant.  Based on what I hear from you folks in the midwest, that is very comfortable.

And here is your chuckle for the day: