Why Not Nikker?: "Fixing" The Property

So the house, barn (even though it's small), and garage/apartment were move in ready. The pasture however was not. So we called in some help to start getting the pasture in order!

Our fist weekend of owning the place, we had my parents, Chads parents, and my sister and her boyfriend to help. Oh, and also Mr. Komatsu and Caterpillar!! The mission was to clear the fence lines and make a driveway that allowed us to enter from the backside of the property saving us a wee bit of time and energy on our daily commute to work. Of course all we could/can get done until we get substantial rain is rough in the drive...but rough it in we did!! ( :

Dad taking off in his ride Saturday A.M.

Dad ran the Komatsu that is the equivalent to a D-4 Cat. He dozed his way through the little toothpick trees like they weren't there. These little trees were unhealthy and growing far too close together for them to reach any sort of maturity. We will go in and selectively thin them next year, to keep ourselves in compliance with the Timber Management Tax Credit.

Kacey giving Jeremy and Riley some direction.

Chad ran the Mini Excavator tearing the little trees out of the ground like bad teeth. It was his first time running this type of equipment, so he wasn't as fast as the seasoned veterans (Dad and Jeremy each move dirt for a living)! ( :

Jim, Chad's dad heading out to supervise!!

My sister Kacey's boyfriend Jeremy hauled in his own Skid Steer and cleaned up behind Dad and Chad with his grappling bucket on the first day. We made a pretty impressive slash pile that will definitely need to be burned in the winter!

Jeremy dumping some scrap...see how dry it is out there?!?

On the second day Dad and Jeremy did a bit more work on the entrance to the new driveway and Chad moved more nasty little trees!!

Chad working in the thick of it!

As for Kacey, Mom, Molly, Jim, Chris, Noah, and Riley aka the ground crew we did things like walk the boundary and mark it, move the green house, move things that didn't need to be destroyed, and cook. We also moved all of my horse stuff from The Ranch to our place. Chad and Jim had finished my (very own, private, no trespassing because I have the key) tack room Friday night so we filled it up!! ( : And also brought over my feeder, my water trough, and some of my panels.

Kage checking out our boundary markers...All the property pretty much looked like this!

All in all, we got a lot done in the weekend and also realized that we had sooo much more to do. A lot of it will be done slowly and by hand I am guessing. But that's the way it is some days!! ( :

Dad working up the same line I showed in previous picture.

We also had a pretty good time visiting with our families...but we did miss Mindy, Fred, and Wyatt!! They were unable to get here because they couldn't get coverage at their business and live 8 hours away on a good day! Whoever said being a small business owner was easy probably lives in a shoe box in their moms closet...

Far less cluttered!!!

We really appreciated all everyone did for us and can't wait until they can come and enjoy visiting rather than showing up to labor on our little piece of Idaho!

Kage escorting Molly and Jim back to the house!

That being said, we did tell them that they were all welcome to come the next weekend and help us dig post holes and work on filling them too!! ( :

Focus boys, focus!

My parents had to work and Jim and Molly had a daughter to visit, but lucky for us Kacey, Jeremy, and there kids were going to be free! Oh, and Jeremy's Skid Steer with the auger would be showing up!! Woot woot!!

An ill placed dirt pile being moved.

So that's about it, but I do have more pictures...and will probably write some captions on them! You know I can't help myself!! You will notice several of my dad...he was so distracted, that he didn't realize I was taking his picture!! He hates having his picture taken and threatens to rip my lips off every time I have my camera out...hmmmm. Guess this is where I say gotcha dad!! LMAO!!