Reprieve

Today marked the beginning of my 5-day countdown, but my landlady has now opened the door to the possibility of staying as long as necessary, until the Questa place is livable. We got a little more snow last night, but it looks like we may get a few days of sun now.

Here's the road at the top of the property a couple days ago, when I visited with my latest prospective big equipment operator, Redwolf (Ruben Martinez):

Above is Ruben's truck at the top of my driveway - no way were we driving down to the house in 18 inches of snow on top of a couple inches of slush...

And here are a couple before/after-the-snow pics, in case, like me, you've forgotten what it looked like a month ago:

The house......and

the driveway, looking up from the parking lot.

Incredibly, Ruben says he can begin Monday, assuming the main highway is ice-free. At least, he'll shovel the drive, but there's actually quite a list for the as yet unhired excavator:

1. Trenches for electric and water lines.
2. Septic system, including trench for sewage out, hole for tank, and dispersion field.
3. New addition foundation, in preparation for pouring the concrete pad.
4. AND, shoveling the drive...