The Miller Project

[Copied from an e-mail, pronouns edited to make sense]

We need to decide where to build the outhouse.

After all day working on the sheds foundation posts, we tried the post hole digger at another location and it zipped right down because we were in the wet area vs the rocky dry area we were in.

Jake has a toilet at his house I got from my sister in law she used in her outbuilding where she lives – got for the price of shipping

I think we were looking at a 5 x 5 foot, might of been 4 x 4 ft platform to build; it would be a changing room also; probably engineer a shower, with the plastic bag holding water in the sun

I will order the exterior siding from the mill down the road; it will need to be picked up there and delivered and walked in; it might take a few trips; I would like for Jonathan and Jake to see what they could engineer to have that delivered. This is when they invite some friends to come along for the day!!!

I will give to Jonathan and Jake a list of what they can do next that they might be able to work on that next day saturday or another day – I am sure Jake might not get the day of either

Next phase after the joists and floor laydown will be to build the walls. I am planning that in June at Ian Childs parents house where there is ample electricity and a chance to get to home depot quickly.  I just noticed that week when Ian and family will be there is the week Gwen and I were going to see a favorite ballet company in NYC right in the middle of the week Weds. I will figure it out.

So in conclusion: I will leave Jonathan and Jake a list (will call) of some further work we can focus on. Major thing I think will be the outhouse foundation. we have 4 x 4′s for the posts and 2 x 6′s to wrap around the posts which need then to be cemented in place the holes are dug, just not sure on location digging only on the driest of the property has major challenges – I know for sure why they call it the rocky mountains, all we could find is one rock after another

In June too we will build the roof frames. We will haul it up there in a Ryder truck.

There are now 8 post holes dug below the frost line, one 5×5 and one 10×12. The 10×12 has posts and yesterday (10/24/2010) we poured the cement to secure them. It snowed overnight but we don’t know the conditions at the ranch. It was kind of cold and rainy yesterday, but if we hurry we might be able to build the floor next weekend and have something not-lumpy to put a tent on during the winter.

Also, I built a bridge over the newly identified river running east -> west, but it’s not finished.

Jake has the pictures.

The Miller Project (.org) has moved hosts and I am updating everything in sight.  Latest versions, new graphics, better functionality, all that jazz.  Right now there are no pictures, but rest assured! They are on my computer and will return once the gallery is resurrected.  Send feedback on the new theme, if you like.

Jake, Mark, Carter and I went out for the weekend to do some random stuff before it gets too cold.  Jake and the others focused on clearing a path for an excavator to work on the drainage ditches some more and we talked dimensions and such, hoping to decide on something that will handle the spring melt.

I worked on the irrigation ditch and was able to clear some bottlenecks.  Half of the thing is now flowing at full speed and not overflowing to the land around it.  The middle portion of the ditch dropped, literally, 6 inches when I dug a new channel around a tree that was letting very little water through.  It seems likely that we will dig a flood basin for the drainage ditch and the irrigation ditch to overflow into during the melt and during storms, otherwise we’ll just end up flooding the wrong places.

Jake has pictures, I unfortunately do not.  So at some point, maybe.

We have one more trip planned but I’m not sure what we’re going to try and accomplish.  Since the irrigation ditch is my pet project I’ll probably try to do that, but we got snow in the mountains yesterday and it may already be too late.

Since the July fun I’ve checked up on our work to see if it did anything, positive or negative.

The upper ditch has captured water and the lower one has not.  This means the upper was enough and that the lower should be enough in times of flash storms.  We’ll need to dig the trench taking this water to the lower section now so that we don’t end up with mosquito friendly ponds.

The irrigation channel was good in some areas but mostly it created extra flooding on the east side.  This is bad on the surface (get it?) but good because the topology is now very clear.  We’ll need to expand the channel around the bushes as they have been made into choke points by the widening we did.  I expanded the exit point (southwest) and built flood walls using the mud I dug out.  This added an extra 2 feet to the height.  Doing this along the entire channel should be enough to stop most of the flooding.  I’d like to get this done before winter since we’ll need to see how the entry/exit points behave during spring thaw as well as how the leakage from our westerly neighbors affects us.  We may need to put a wall of sorts on the property line.

Speaking of which!  Apparently the valley was surveyed in the 60′s with what has been proven to be incredibly inaccurate.  Some GIS maps from the county show property lines that bear little resemblance to the fences.  I don’t know if these are authoritative, but we need a survey!  A licensed surveyor would be best, but someone with a GPS and some experience would be a good starting point.  There are things we need to dig and build that are dependent on knowing where we are allowed to start and stop.  The upper ditches may already be wrong.

Fall is basically started and winter is soon.  Come ski!  I have guest rooms now.

I got frustrated trying to figure out how to embed a gallery when I did the July post (even computer nerds experience this!), and I’ve been busy moving and generally changing everything forever to revisit the issue.

But no more! I have unlocked the secrets, and without further delay here are our experiences in July when the family gathered with chainsaws and heavy machinery.

Friends and Family, the month of ranch style celebration approaches.  Every year in Pine Valley (the name of the ranch, remember?) there is at least one celebration that I know of for sure, possibly two.  July 4th is what you would expect it to be and July 24th is one only state residents and interested friends/family know about.  Pioneer Day, basically an aftershock of July 4th.

The big extended family get together on the 4th is one our part of the family has never participated in due to historical complications, but if you’re interested and will be in the area, need a place to stay or a ride, call Jonathan (801-949-1475) and he/I will make arrangements.

The 24th may indeed have ranch happenings, but we’re looking to go there for a more Miller-focused experience.  On the weekend of the 10th-12th we will be visited by brothers Howard and John for a first-hand survey of what Jake and I have been going on about, with a professional looky-loo by Juliet Johnson, Family Water Engineer, to see what can be done about the whole water thing.  There are some aspirations for getting excavator/chainsaw work done over the weekend, and if we have 2+ chainsaws we’ll be able to clear non-soaked camping areas for the 24th.

Rather unsurprisingly if you know Jake and I (more me) we cleared the part of the ranch that was sogiest without actually being submerged.  The hornet’s nest should have been a clear omen.

So to recap: July 4th is the valley-wide festivities; July 10-12 we work; July 24th we play.

Panorama of camp in its early stages

Making the trek to camp, starting at our neighbor’s driveway

And some random pictures.

In the “beginning” there was Isaac Mitton Stewart and The Second Wife, Elizabeth White.  Among many others, they begot Charles Biekley Stewart who went on to marry Katherine Romney and together with his brothers founded the Stewart family ranch in Pine Valley.  Their daughter, Katherine Romney Stewart, married one Karl John Miller and did not found a ranch, but instead started a family that has in turn created so many more families that we hardly know what to do with ourselves.

Well, one thing we can do goes back to the family ranch.  The 1+ acre in our family is not the marshy wasteland some of us have grown up believing.  Jake and I have already cleared a campsite and spent two weekends on the property.  It has great potential for being a retreat as well as a way to connect with the rest of the family.  To this end I have created this web site to track the progress of what I’m calling “The Miller Project,” as well as creating a forum for ideas and comments.

Enjoy.