I Stand Corrected

It has been brought to my attention that the picture of the moose crossing the road, used in an earlier post, is in fact an elk.
Here's what it should have looked like:

Love thy Neighbor

The excavation is now in it's second day. And we heard about it from everyone! If you recall, when we left Bob and Sons on Tuesday afternoon, they were going to pack up and call it a day by 6pm.
Remember we live in a small community. That has it's good side and it's bad. As it turns out, Bob and Sons weren't finished at 6pm like they originally told us. So he called in his troops. Did I mention he has 17 children? The whole fam damily was at our lot trying to get finished. So when Stoneridgeguy frantically drove over at 9pm to confirm that "all that noise" was coming from our lot, he was surprised to see the manpower at work.
His request to halt and desist was once again ignored. We were told by many neighbors that they worked until 11pm. One of our neighbor's Bam, his real name is Bam Bam and I do not kid, said he got 15 calls requesting that he walk over and make them quit.
Fortunately, everyone here is pretty tolerant since they have all built their own homes. Bob's sons are very pleased to know that they won't have to work past 7pm ever again at our lot.

It Begins!

It all started Tuesday at around 8am.
We contracted Bob Dahlin & Sons to do the excavating.

Bob came with 3 of his sons.
The eldest son had to clear the lot.


The 2 younger boys put all of the small pieces into the chipper and then cut the logs into manageable pieces so we can use it for firewood.


Finally Bob brought out the bulldozer to level the lot.

We came back out at about 3pm to check on things, only to find that we needed to cut down
a lot more trees. Needless to say, the kids weren't too happy about that.

We left at 4pm for out Tuesday Night Neighbors golf game. At 7:30pm, after dinner we could still hear the equipment from across the lake. Bob told us they were going to finish up by 6pm so Steve and I just figured that they were running a bit behind and would be finishing up soon.
But at 9pm we could still hear them working.

Now it looks like this.

Tomorrow, Thursday, Steve meets with Bob to figure out exactly where the house will be placed on the lot. Then Bob will start the excavation for the basement and dig the trenches for the footings.

There's no turning back now!

Moose Tracks

For 5 years me and my Stonerigeguy have been coming to Stoneridge to visit. Each time we have been confounded with the lack of animal life. There are all kinds of birds. There are a pair of ospry that nest at the end of the lake, A heron that flies the length of the lake in the afternoon, and I have seen bald eagle. But I'll be damned if we have seen a squirrel or chipmunk.
That is changing. In getting to know our neighbors, it has come to our attention that there is all kinds of wildlife at Stoneridge. But because we live on a golf course, they have decided that they don't want to compete with us humans and stay within the treeline.
Wolf, deer, elk and moose are common in this area. Last year, in January, a family of moose were hanging out in what will be our front yard at the lake house. A few months ago, a young moose wandered into the Motor Coach Village on afternoon.
We've seen a few deer and just a couple of days ago we saw our first moose in person. A mama moose crossed the road in front of our car to join here baby. I was so excited I started yelling in the car right in the middle of a phone conversation.
Needless to say, I can't wait until winter when the there will be considerable less people here and the wildlife will come out from hiding.

It's a Small World!

We have been in Stoneridge now for 3 weeks. During our short time here, we have met so many neighbors. What we are coming to find out is that most of them are from either Southern California, Arizona or Nevada. Of course, there are some stragglers from other states and even a few that were born here, moved south and have returned.
I'm sure you've heard it said many times, "It sure is a small world." Once again that statement has proved itself true. I played with a gal that turns out to have graduated with Steve from Dodson Middle School in San Pedro. We're going to play with them next week so they can try to see how many friends they may have in common.

Our First Idaho Visitors

As we got closer to our move to Idaho, we didn't think we would see any friends or family until we returned to So. Cal for a visit at Christmas time.
Susan and Jerry were the first to prove our theory wrong. Susan is the first friend from Lithographix. Actually, I was hired to replace her. She retired the year I started so she and her husband could travel around the country in their 5th wheel. I was jealous! Here we were 7 years later and she made that same comment to me during her visit.
Our sons Casey and Ryan are the next who are scheduled to arrive July 23rd and we can't wait. My Mom will be returning to Idaho with me on August 23rd. (I fly back to So. Cal so that I can drive with our youngest son Michael to get him set up in his dorm room at Yavapai JC in Prescott, AZ).
Our spare bedroom is always open for visitors.

Welcome To The Neighborhood

You are looking at our driveway at 181 Stewart Drive.

It's happening! Things are slowly, but surely, moving along. The county has assigned our address. We are having the erosion control study completed and the excavator has been hired. We may be breaking ground in two weeks! Cousin Rob Bradford will be coming up in a few weeks to help too.
Everyone here has been incredibly friendly and have welcomed us into the neighborhood with open arms. I told Steve we need to get a new address book to keep track of all of the new phone numbers we keep getting. there is no shortage of activities either. I just found out that Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday we have water aerobics, for free. Along with the golf:
Tuesday: AM-Men's skin game. PM-Tuesday Night Neighbors, followed by dinner
Wednesday: AM-Stoneridge Women's Golf Club, PM-Ladies of the Evening
Thursday: Stoneridge Men's Club.
There's also a traveling Women's & Men's Golf league that plays 3-4 times a month.
3 mornings a week at 6am I could attend "Boot Camp" which is a high impact workout. I don't know if my knees will be able to manage that one.
As Stoneridge adds more homes, the developer has given each neighborhood a name. But the residents have dubbed the neighborhoods with their own. Those in the "Motor Coach RV Park" are lovingly referred to as the "trailer trash". (Even though the average price of the RV's on those $60M pads may cost more than our new home.)
The "Vineyard Town homes" are the "projects" and here in the "Fairway Meadow Condos" it's known as the "slums".

Then we did a little shopping:

Our New 2009 Subaru Forrester: check out the license plate.

Since we had to register the new car today, we decided to transfer the registration on the truck and get our new driver's licenses. We are officially Idahoans. We've only been here two weeks and Steve already looks like a local.

Let me tell you about the one that got away

The first priority was to find the fishing reels and our packs from storage. After a scare that they were lost among the many boxes still to be opened, we set off to our lake for a bit of fishing. There was a bit of a crowd at one of the favorite spots, so you had to be careful casting. Steve wanted to try his fly rod and caught...

He managed to hook Ebony. As you can see, she's ok.