Death to the North Wall and roof

On June 20th I got the opportunity to drive out to the property for a couple hours to check things out and show the land to a gentleman visiting my brother from England.


As we pulled up to the property, disappointment quickly set in.

It seems like the wind got ahold of my pre-fabricated northern-most roof section and took one wall with it due to the banding straps that were attached near the bottom of the wall. The banding straps on the west apparently broke under the stress rather than taking the wall with it.

The solution I believe that we will be trying, money permitting, is to restack the failed walls (hopefully without having to tear down the rest of the structure) and rebuild the roof in place, but this time pour 6 pylons and chain the roof directly to a positive anchor in the ground rather than the strawbale wall.

Luckily we didn't loose all of the lumber from the north roof section as it landed a dozen yards or so away and held its ground.

I stacked a half dozen bails on top of the roof on the west side just before we left a couple months ago thinking that a few hundred pounds of straw would do a pretty good job at holding the roof on in addition to the banding straps. I was very supprised to see that not a single bale (around 50-65 pounds per bale) remained on the roof section still in place. I have definitely underestimated the power of the wind.

It was a neat experience having Chris from England out for a few days. It was fun seeing the things that were new and impressive to him that I don't even give a second thought to like dirt roads, roads that stretch straight for as long as the eye can reasonably see, open space for hundreds of miles, being able to carry a pocket knife and/or other means of self defense.

Taylie realllly wants to go home with him so she can "marry him and live forever and ever in a castle." She's already got the accent down pretty well from this clip she finds hilarious http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OBlgSz8sSM.

Taylie really enjoyed his company and even made him a drawing to put in his journal so that he would "Always remember her", I hope he didn't mind coming a few thousand miles to be adored to death by my 4 year old.

Fresh start

Zach here:
I have kept this on the down low for the last week; but last monday my employment was terminated with FLSmidth SLC Inc. For those of you not familiar with my employment or the company I worked for; I started out @ Summit Valley 3 years ago fresh into the mining industry knowing very little about the precious metals concentration and extraction equipment I serviced. My primary responsibilities were aftermarket sales, shipping and recieving, purchasing, expediting, and project management on a small scale. Summit Valley was aquired by FLS in Dec. of 09. We went from being a small office of two dozen people operating out of second hand cubicles and running the warehouse out of a gravel parking lot and several storage sheds; to a worldwide conglomerate of with thousands of employee's and so many bosse's to answer to I don't even know all of their names. There were definitly pro's and con's to the large company; but if given the direct choice I would take a small company like Summit Valley over a giant corporate beurocracy like FLSmidth despite the lesser benefit packages. I hope my search for gainful employment leads me to a similar place. There is something really really great about feeling welcome to walk into the CEO's office and ask for financial advice, help with your golf swing, or any concerns you may have with your job or your compensation.
I feel good about my efforts @ FLSmidth. I hope that my co-workers and customers there appreciate my efforts and service.
I feel peace despite the hardships that are sure to come with finding a job in this economy. In all of my life I have never left a job by anyone's decision but my own; this is a new feeling. I have never been at a better place in life to face unemployment (well maybe when I was 16 and had no responsibilities and bills). Clarissa has been the most supportive and loving person I could have ever asked for through the ordeal.
If anyone is aware of any technical sales/purchasing/shipping & receiving/ inventory control positions around the wasatch front feel free to email me with info and it would be greatly appreciated.