Week 6 - Wed, October 6

I know how you feel, Chloe. I know how you feel.
(click to enlarge)

Be warned: This post includes a lot of whining.

A lot of lumber was dropped off today, but no one came to work with it.

We did, however, have a big truck with a conveyor belt on it come and dump sand on the electrical conduit. We were hoping to get it done with one load. One load holds 19 tons and costs $450. We came up short - wah - and had to order another load. They were willing to knock $50 off each load, so the final bill should be $800. (Got the bill: $700. How kind of them! Their name is Brunestone, if you have any sand or gravel needs.)

This is something that we really shouldn't have had to do anyway. Do you really need conduit (3 inch, schedule 40 PVC for that matter), which will be buried 36 inches deep, and sand?

Yes, I'm keeping track of all these costs and other burdensome and redundant requirements and I will be sending a letter to the state utilities commission. When we're through, getting the electrical line will cost us twice the exorbitant fee they charged us for the . . . well, we're not quite sure exactly what they charged us 5K for. So far we've done everything. I guess it's for the electrical wire. So by my calculations, that wire costs about $70 per foot. I gotta see this wire!

So, I'm a little stressed out today.

There is a gold lining to this cloudy day, though. (It actually was a cloudy day.) Spoke with Bob, who has been working with us in getting us our gas line. When Mike dropped off the check and contract yesterday, he spoke with someone who thought we wouldn't have to bring an extra thick line past the ditch. He didn't think that was our responsibility. He spoke with Bob and they agreed to change our contract, send back our check and redo. So that's novel. We'll actually pay less than expected on something. (Actually, (Oct 19th now,) we did end up having to bring the thicker line. Oh, well. At least we didn't end up paying more than we thought.)

And -- that truck was really cool! He drove it with a remote control.