We have officially broken ground!
I made a solo trip down early one morning 2 weeks ago to meet the concrete guys who would be digging through the solid freaking rock to make the holes for our piers. When I pulled up early, I was the only one there except for a pack of turkeys trying to sneak past me through the trees. It was peaceful and surreal.
Our cabin will be 2 stories and they will anchor it down after the build. We needed to get it up off the ground to have access to the septic line underneath and for future plumbing, and the view will be great up higher too.
Then this weekend Neil and I drove out to remove the cardboard tubes that they used as forms for the piers. They were bright yellow and ugly AF and I wanted them gone like yesterday. Plus I've been told they are a magnet for termites and other bugs so we needed to get them off before the floor goes down.
We came equipped with a utility blade, an oscillating saw, and what would end up ultimately being the most efficient tool for the job, our fingers. (Eyeroll) RIP fingernails.
Fun fact: Wet cardboard is impossible to cut and did you know cardboard tubes have 327 layers?
We managed to claw off all 20 tubes and even take a walk to the middle of our woods in 2 hours which was pretty good since it felt like 5 and a half.
We cleaned up our trash, put down some bug repellent granules, chatted with our neighbors, reset the cameras, and hit the road.
We weren't in a rush to get home and we were starving so we decided to stop and have dinner at a little hole in the wall catfish eatery the next town over. When we put our last name on the list to get a table, they gestured to the 85 year old couple seated against the wall and said they already had that name. Okay… I guess put a number two behind ours? Weird.
When the number ones were called, we watched them hobble past us and I resisted the urge to yell out “Grandpa?” and Neil didn't think that was funny, for the record. Weird.
We were called 5 minutes later and ended up sitting in the opposite corner as the ones who share our name. The waitress even accidentally brought their food to our table before snatching it away as quickly as it had appeared. It looked like exactly what we ordered too. Weird.
Then we sat and waited for about 2 hours, watching the future us eat their meal in silence, get the check, pay it and leave. Still no food.
We watched other people seated long after us get their food too. Weird.
I was starting to wonder if this was some kinda Christmas Carol Scrooge situation where nobody else could see us sitting in the corner as we were forced to watch our future unfold before our eyes.
Hello? Can you see us? Bring us our fucking catfish! I stood up and whistled just to see if anyone could hear me but everyone just stopped and stared. Weird.
Finally, as the restaurant was beginning to clear out and just as we were starting to wither away and die from starvation, too much food arrived and we ate until we were stuffed.
By the time we paid the bill we could have driven the whole two hours home and just grabbed a greasy burger on the way. But we wouldn't have had a glimpse of the future or a parallel universe sort of vibe or whatever so I guess it was worth it.
The next time we pull down our gravel driveway, we will have the start of a cabin standing before us. Weird!