A few extra photos

Stump removal

Zach made chainsaw holders for the 4-wheeler, tractor, jeep, and backhoe

The water tank

Completed gate and sign

Wildlife....

Hello.... and goodbye... to June!!!

Homeschooling, pregnancy, a wedding, heatwaves, and 2 birthdays. Those are a few of my excuses for not posting the past month. Totally lame... I know.

   Although there haven't been any posts, there is still a lot happening in the world of Hidden Hills.

  We celebrated my sister Emily's 40th birthday up at the land. We had an insane amount of good food (Thanks Mom!!), tons of helpers and so much fun! There was a lightning storm the night we camped, and it was a little scary!!! During the day we had good weather and good company. 

  
  Our application for drilling a well was submitted and we are almost done with the waiting game. We think that around the 2nd week of August we will be able to drill!!!! Yea!!! We are currently taking donations ;) Just kidding! But we are most likely going to sell our house in Vegas and ask to rent it back for a few months so that we will have equity from our house to really push all our projects forward. So if you know anyone looking to move TO Las Vegas... Send them our way!!

   We purchased a 1500 gallon water tank. This tank should fit on the back of one 6x6 and  will alleviate the stress of bringing water up to the land by 50 gallon drums. So even if it does take longer to drill, we will have a backup water storage system and we wont have to ration water as much.

   Zach did some MAJOR work at the foot of our driveway. He built some beautiful gabions to attach our gate to. One weekend Marshall, Simon and Lincoln were there to help with one set. Another weekend our church scout troop came up for a camp out and helped fill the remaining two. 

   Gabion: A gabion (from Italian gabbione meaning "big cage"; from Italian gabbia and Latin cavea meaning "cage") is a cage, cylinder, or box filled with rocks, concrete, or sometimes sand and soil for use in civil engineering, road building, military applications and landscaping. 

   Zach has found a bunch of materials that we need for building the barn. We just keep going back and forth as to whether we should buy them, or try to make them ourselves.  We could potentially save $3,000-$6,000 by making our own trusses, poles and siding. But it will be time consuming. With baby #5 arriving soon, possibly listing our  house for sale, and Zach's work schedule.... we are trying to sort out financial advantage vs time advantage.

    This is the style and almost exact shape of the barn we are looking to build. We have someone coming up to Hidden Hills to give us a quote tomorrow on bulldozing the 70x70 foot area we need leveled. We may end up renting a dozer and doing it ourselves. We'll see. If we had a little more in savings... Zach would take off 6 weeks of work and just get it ALL DONE. It's killing him to not be able to just build, clear, and shape our little ranch all by himself. He hates the thought of buying things he can make. I'm lucky to be married to someone who loves to work hard and takes pride in doing things himself (and with family members who like helping). 

  To all those friends and family members who have come up in the past 6 weeks and been worked to death and gotten bug bites galore... THANK YOU!! We could not have gotten Hidden Hills manicured to the place where it is, without you. We love you and thank you for your enthusiasm and support. When we hit roadblocks, it's your energetic support that keeps us going!  

  This pretty much sums up life right now. Hopefully we'll be able to have a few more things finalized before this baby comes!

  Remember... God is good... ALL the time. 

May 13th, 14th, 15th

Before the crazy hail and rain came.... 

Then there was snow!!!!!

Then it all went away and dried up. It was a crazy couple of days!!!! The kids and I had to retreat to the camper for hours at a time to escape the weather. We played countless rounds of Skip-Bo, Phase 10, or Nertz. They were great little troopers!!!! Zach finished widening the road, but it was too wet to do much scraping. 

Today's (all three days actually) Guest List:

Our Crew

May 2nd: Box Blade and Backhoe

  While I was across the country visiting my friend Ericka and then my Grandma Edie, Zach decided he would run up to HH to get the backhoe fixed. At the conclusion of our last work day, a hose on the backhoe started leaking pretty bad. So he figured he would take the time while I was gone to figure out what parts needed changing and get the backhoe back in order so that the next time we went up it would be fully operational for another work party!

 

  Well, my Mom decided she wanted to go, and she invited a family friend Darrel to go as well. Zach ended up bringing our nephew Marshall too! So with lots of helping hands to watch kids and wanting to work... He filled up the backhoe with hydraulic fluid and decided to patch the problem instead of fix it. Other than slowly dripping hydraulic fluid everywhere and a front tire that was flat by nightfall... it worked great! When we had purchased the backhoe last year, the back two tires (the big ones) were totally sun rotted, so we had already replaced them. the two smaller front tires had held up okay, so we were waiting until it was necessary to replace them.  When we have so many projects to do, it's hard prioritizing what we put money into first, second, etc.... But it worked out great that the tired lasted just long enough to  get another workday in. It would have been a huge bummer had we planned on a 2-3 day work party and had the parts go all out then. Zach would have had to scramble back and forth to Cedar (over an hour each way) to try and get parts together instead of being able to just work, work, work! All in all... a blessing in disguise.

   All day long, Darrell worked on the tractor pulling a box blade up and down the road smoothing out the parts where Zach had uprooted trees and dug out stumps with the backhoe. When he texted me pictures of the road at the end of the day, I could hardly believe it was the same strip of dirt!!!!!

   Before he left, Zach noted the parts that needed to be fixed (hydraulic hose, 2 hydraulic seals, new front tire) and ordered them that night so that the next time we came up he could swap out the old parts with new parts.

   Count your blessings! Name them one by one! God is good.

Today's Guest List

Our Crew

Grandma Pam

Marshall

Darrell 

April 18th: Massive Road Change

We swapped the old sink for a new utility sink. The pump and plumbing that was with the original sink works great!!! 

 Swapped sink

A little mouse kept the kids entertained for 3 hours :)

 While groups of people were down working on the road, Reagan, Lincoln and Makenna kept the kids entertained with wagon rides as the other adults cooked lunch and cleaned up camp.

McKinley is the cutest little ring leader with these two!

Sometimes I'm really glad that kids hijack my phone :)

New cooking/prep area.

Uncle Chris taking control of this out-of-control-tree.

There was a bushy pinyon tree right by the new kitchen station. Chris made quick work of the lower branches and the kids and women helped clear out everything underneath. It created an AWESOME climbing tree and shady area to sit and eat under. 

Curtain rod and hot water heater in place. It's rustic, but it works when you need a hot shower!!!!

Some interlocking tiles for the shower floor.

As the work day was coming to a close, Zach drove the backhoe up to Hidden Hills and gave all the kiddos a little ride in the bucket. Zach and the crew accomplished more in the last 5 hours of road work, than in the previous 12! By the afternoon Zach had mastered the tricks of the trade and started ripping a new road on the 3 sections that were the most treacherous. Of all the things to forget to take pictures of... I didn't get photos of the obliterated road!!! AHHHHHHH! I was up at the camp most of the day, and when I did run down to check on progress, I forgot to grab a phone that wasn't dead (mine was) to snap a video or a few photos. 

Here is a video of a tree he knocked down in the area we want to build the barn. I feel like this video doesn't do the backhoe justice. The size of the trees that Zach had been knocking over the previous 4 hours were 5 times bigger, but fell just as easy. But at least you can get an idea of how much fun he had all day :)

Bucket loads of fun!

Today's Guest List:
Our Crew
Chris Headlee
Mya Headlee
Maycie Headlee
Morgyn Headlee
Emily Peery
Jacob Peery
Adam Peery
Will Headlee
Tabitha Headlee
Tippy Headlee
Grandpa Mike
Greg Headlee
Whitney Headlee
Makenaa Headlee

April 17th: Road Clearing Time

  Two days after the "Deer Wintering" restriction was over (it runs from December 1st -April 15th) ... we couldn't wait to start working on the road. YEAH!!! First we had to get the backhoe out to the road that needed work. With the 6x6 completely operational, we used it to pick up a heavy duty trailer that belongs to Zach's uncle Elroy, and it is tough enough to handle the weight of the backhoe. 

  The 6x6 hauled the trailer and backhoe like a dream. We parked it 2 miles away from Hidden Hills, at the beginning of the road that was the biggest problem. Out of the 18 miles that it takes to get from town to our land... the last 2 miles was nothing more than a glorified jeep trail. Until we widen those last two miles, there is no way to get the materials we need for the barn, or to get a drilling truck for our well, up to Hidden Hills.

Months ago, we did buy a firewood permit which in this particular area (lucky us!!) allowed us to cut green wood (trees that were alive and not dead). So we had been able to cut down and slightly widen the so called "road" so that at least all the trees didn't scrape our cars when we would drive up to Hidden Hills.

 The road is full of turns, a few wicked ditches, and certain places are super rocky (aka buried boulders). So we are lucky to have a beast such as our backhoe to do most of the heavy lifting, scraping, digging and pushing.

I don't think that I have any pictures of the worst spots! I'm so bummed. It was seriously an adventure just to get to our land every time. And the times that there had been rain or snow... INSANE!!! 

 It was noon by the time everyone arrived. We decided to do a few housekeeping things before Zach & Les got to work on the front quarter of a mile of the road. 

 

Will and Tab's campsite

We expanded a different campsite to house 2 tents. This is where Emily and my dad set up their tents. We had to do a little more chipping and clearing in that area.

 

We added a smaller fire pit to a newly designated kitchen area which is right outside the shed. The last few work days we had spent up at HH, I spent a lot of time (or sending kiddos) going back and forth to the shed for supplies. Relocating our camp kitchen made all the cooking and preparing of food so much easier!

 

We made English  muffin pizzas for lunch. Reagan and McKinley were my good little helpers. First we toasted one side of the muffins, then added sauce, cheese and pepperonis. Then we put them back on the fire with a tin foil tent to warm them through and melt the cheese. SUPER EASY and SUPER YUMMY.

After lunch Zach and his dad headed back down the road to start working. The rest of us stayed at camp trimming, cutting, chipping, and setting up tents. It was a little chilly all day. The sun would peak through the cloudy sky occasionally, but it was really quite cool.

 Tippy was warm in her puffy vest and booties :)

These two keep the main fire pit going all day. 


We were expecting Greg and Whitney for dinner, so we made a total of 15 tinfoil dinners. With a few helping hands, assembly was a breeze.  

 

The dinners took less than 45 minutes to cook, and were BY FAR the best hobo/tinfoil dinner to date. Will and Tabitha had brought a few gravy packets and steak seasoning.  We put a mixture of ground sausage and beef formed into a patty, carrots, potatoes and onions.

Zach and his dad spent 6 hours pushing trees over, digging out boulders and digging up stumps. An hour before total darkness Greg, my dad, Will and myself went down to chainsaw and help clear. My dad would cut down the trees, Will and Greg would cut off the branches, and I would separate them into piles. It was a good system with 4 people.  However Zach realized towards the end of the first night that it is MUCH EASIER to just push over a tree, and then cut it up after, rather than to cut a tree down and dig out a stump. With the tree fully intact, he can get good leverage to uproot the entire tree. Juniper or Pinyon. Great lesson to learn early on. This made all the difference the following day :)

We all regrouped at the main fire pit for spooky stories and hot chocolate. Everyone was pretty tired and it was getting really cold. It was a great first day, with only one minor injury. We had joked about people wearing hard hats, but after William was attacked by a falling tree and suffered a minor concussion... we might seriously consider it. Either that or people need to yell "TIMBERRRRRRR".

Today's Guest List:
Our Crew
Grandpa Mike
Emily Peery
Adam Peery
Jacob Peery
Will Headlee
Tabitha Headlee
Greg Headlee
Whitney Headlee
Makenna Headlee
Grandpa Les