Hidden Hills Ranch: February 2015

February 16th: Shed Completion & Barn Footprint Cleared

Monday was a busy, fun filled day. We had loads of people come up to help, and had a blast all day cutting, clearing and piling logs and branches.

The shed now helps us hold all our extra materials and supplies. It will be nice to not have to haul up certain tools and equipment every trip.

Done and done!

Cut. Separate. Pile. Repeat.

Looking for an adventure.

Photo Credit: Kurtis

There were no injuries or tears. Well, maybe a few sniffles when it was time to leave. It was a great day and we are so blessed to have such amazing friends and family who love hard work as much as we do. Every project day gets better and better.

Today's Guest List:
Johnny 5
Derek
Kurtis
Sam
Emily
Adam
Jacob
Greg
Whitney
Marlee
Makenna
Mike
Simon

February 14th: Shed Construction

Today was our first building day!!! Although we got a later start than we wanted to, we eventually got up to Hidden Hills with 1 truck load and one trailer load of materials, and completed 75% of the shed.

Thursday night all 7 of us ( our family plus one cute tag-a-long cousin) hit the lumber store together. We had 3 big carts and a hundred different boards wheeling through the store. Zach spent 3 hours pre cutting and measuring all of the framing and roof for the shed. He color coded the ends of all the boards with spray paint so that when it was construction time, it would be easy to assemble.

Saturday we arrived at Hidden Hills around 11:30am. The trailer we were hauling the materials in was a little wider than the jeep path we'd been driving on the past few months. When we were 1/4 mile away... we got stuck between 2 trees :) Luckily the chainsaw had JUST ENOUGH gas to cut one tree down to allow passage. Always an adventure!!

Here is the progress at the end of day one. Not to shabby! Thanks to Nik & Benjamin for coming up. They were a huge help (Nik for building and Benjamin for keeping our Jefferson entertained).

Rooftop photo credit: Nik Hulet

Roof Selfie :)

Today's Guest List:

Our Crew

Nik

Benjamin

Simon

February 7th: Cutting and Clearing and Cooking

Yep. You guessed it. Today's project consisted of more cutting and clearing. We can't wait to get our chipper which will clear out all the branches that are starting to really pile up :)

Zach invented a fire pit cooker rack. IT'S AWESOME!!!!! There is nothing he can't do! Earlier in the week when we were cooking with my mom, she and Zach started brainstorming outdoor cooking. Between that visit and this one (4 days) he created this beauty. It's so cool!

Today's Guest List:

Our Crew

Simon

February 3rd: Cutting & Clearing

Today we did more cutting and clearing. Without Pam to cook for us, we resorted to a rocket stove and Ramen for lunch. We used the snow to keep our drinks ice cold all day. But with the warmer temperature.... the snow was on it's way out.

Today's Guest List:
Les

February 2nd: Cutting & Clearing

Zach was able to move his work schedule around and work a few extra long days so that we could spend Monday and Tuesday of this week at Hidden Hills. We had 3 chainsaws operating most of the day and cut down a lot of juniper trees.

We got spoiled with Pam's outdoor survival cooking, and had meatball subs with Provolone and Parmesan cheese for lunch. She has this great thermal cooker, which helped a lot!

Today's Guest List:
Our Crew

Mike
Pam
Les

November 26th: Our First Cutting And Clearing Project

HOLY FUN! We had a great first day clearing Hidden Hills (we decided to name the property instead of continually calling it "the property"). We aren't quite sure where the house and barn are going yet. So right now we are cutting down all Juniper trees.

Our property consists of 2 types of trees. Juniper trees and Pinon trees. Juniper trees, also known as Cedar trees, are an invasive tree species. They are water hogs. They don't have much use other than being good for firewood. If we want to plant any other types of tree or plants, we wont want any Juniper trees around. So even if we don't have any definite plans... we know we can always cut Juniper trees.