Nothing at all had happened for so very long, and then all of a sudden, many things happened at once. Only a day after our friends had returned home, the wood arrived from the mill. Being only used to your basic Home Depot type lumber, this was a revelation. Rough-cut, true-measurement lumber. The 6x6s were actually 6 inches by 6 inches, not 5 3/8×5 3/8 the 2×4’s were 2×4. And all of it cost far less than any hardware ever had to offer. The mill is local. It has been run by the same family for over one hundred years now. They know their business.

The day after the wood arrived, we were delighted to be awakened by the well truck moving up the drive early in the morning.

The original estimate from the driller had said well depth 110 ft. He had vastly overestimated, as it turns out. They hit water at 8ft (good thing we never planned to dig a basement), and were more than satisfied by the amount of water available by 70ft. They charge by the foot, so we came in considerably under budget, which is always a plus.

The day after the well went in, my ground-auger/sonotube guy was supposed to come. He had said he would. We waited all day. He never showed. As this was the same guy that had ghosted me for six weeks about doing the road and then never came at all, you might guess I was less than impressed. He didn’t call, either. Late that evening, I did finally get an email “I didnt get up that way today. See you tomorrow”. No apology, no nothing. Booo, sir, booo!

He did eventually show the next day. Not first thing, as he had said, but it was technically still morning when he arrived and put the skidsteer to work.

At the end of the day, we were the proud owners of 18 4-ft holes in the ground. Holes that had water in the bottom. I asked him about the water, and he said ‘not a problem, I’ve worked with worse.’ This was a Friday. Concrete wasnt available until Monday, so he packed his skidsteer up and headed off. On Sunday evening, I emailed him again to let him know that the water level was higher in the holes than it had been, so he would be prepared with whatever equipment might be needed. His answer came back “yeeeaah…I’m not comfortable continuing this project.”

All of a sudden, we’re dead in the water. Again.