It is the season for Elk

On our way up to saw some more logs into timbers we stumbled upon this site. Most people don't get to see Elk very often or at all, let alone some Calves.
By the time we got out our camera to take a shot half of them were out of range but this should give you an idea of what walks around in the wild here

This was not our first day cutting, but wanted to give you some of an idea of how we get up into the “private land” forest area. Half way up to the sawmill and tree cutting area, you can see Miramonte Reservoir, which you can also few from our future home. The front view will be the Lone Cone and the rear vie will by the Reservoir.

The second picture is a stack of 2x10 cut and put into stacks. This is not the drying location. The lumber will be moved to our house location, stickered and stacked for drying. In addition to the 2x10 we also gut some heavy timbers such as 10x12 rough cut and a bunch of 6x8 rafters at 21 feet

Drivway

the driveway is going in. this picture was taken before the gravel was added. The sub-base gravel will be hauled from our lot. It is was the excavator called dirty gravel. But then again Dirty Gravel is cheap "Free". The only thing i had to pay for on that aspect was the hauling of the dirt to our house site.

The sub-grade is what we will be driving on for the remainder of the construction process. It's not the nicest driveway but it will work until the house is done.

Tractor Time

We decided we needed a tractor to build the house and later on for the ranch. The tractor we bought was a Montana with a backhoe and some other attachments; It has a 70 horse power 3 stroke 4 cycle John Deere engine.

It's not a big tractor but it does what it is suppose to. It digs like a champ it runs great and has more torque then i know what to do with.

Pretty soon we will start to dig for electrical lines ( hopefully before snow falls) and ofcourse the tractor is used to get the trees out the woods and on the saw mill

first post

Spring of 2005, Graduation arrived and a new chapter in my life has started. Graduated with a Civil Engineering Degree out of Colorado State University. Job lined up with The Weitz Company. The first assignment was unclear when I started; was supposed to go through 4 weeks of orientation and that assigned to an ongoing construction job in the Denver area. 2 days before I started work they told me I have to be in Telluride, CO; definitely not the Denver area (For those of you not familiar with the area it is about a 2 hours flying or 6 to 7 hours driving).

The plan was to eventually save up enough money to buy a house within 10 years. My plan got accelerated and changed to say the least.

To keep the story short, I quit Weitz because the company's way of doing business is not very good and the job was just not for me. I took a job with the building department in Mountain Village, CO and found myself my other half (her name is Marcy Pickering).

Well bringing you up to date we are building a house, starting by cutting the trees (Ponderosa pine) sending it through our portable sawmill (woodmizer) and producing all engineering and architectural drawings ourself. The Frame of the house will be a hybrid frame of Heavy timber construction and convensional stick frame construction.
Some thing we are not able to do by ourselfs cause the county will not allow it. For instance i don't have my PE and stamp yet so i can't stamp my own plan.