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Owen County Clay

This past week was a flurry of activity. It’s really exciting to see things happening at the farm. Since we are putting a temporary home on the property, all the utilities have to be run to where that home is going to sit. And since our trailer is going to sit where our future barn will be built, all the utilities need to be permanent. The week started with a call to Holey Moley (the call-before-you-dig number; in Indiana it’s 811). As we expected, the only public utilities on our property are internet and electricity.

That little orange flag is a big deal for us. Internet availability was actually one of the first things we checked before making an offer on the property. With both of us working from home (and soon running a business from home), high-speed internet is a must. Most rural areas are last on the list for fiber; thankfully our area was one of the first.

Since septic and geothermal are private utilities, we had to call a private locate company to come out to mark those lines. And just as Murphy’s Law would have it, neither our septic nor geothermal had any sort of metal line the tech could hook onto with his EM reader. However, our tech ‘witched’ them. I know water can be witched, but had no idea you could witch anything else. It was the coolest/weirdest/freakiest thing I have ever seen! Witching is not 100% accurate, but it at least gave us a basic idea of where the lines are so the other utility companies don’t bore through them.

Those pink flags mark our septic line. I told the technician we only needed about 40 feet of line marked out from the tank; just enough the well guy wouldn’t cut it when trenching our new water line. I didn’t tell the tech where the line led, just that it ended about 150 feet out into our field. When he finished marking it, I walked the line he had ‘witched’… and it ended right at our distribution box. We know where the box is located because we have the diagram from when it was installed, but our tech had no way of knowing that. Pretty freakin’ cool.
We were told by the previous owner, the geothermal loop was under the loop in the driveway. We assumed it was under the middle of the driveway loop. Nope! Our driveway makes a big loop in front of the house… and the geothermal lines follow that same path! Who knew? Yes, we told the tech to spray paint on the driveway…the driveway will be sealed next year after construction is finished so the pink is only there temporarily.

The biggest thing that happened this week was our meeting with the engineers from SCI REMC (our power co-op) to figure out how to get power from the transformer to the trailer/barn location. Initially, we were told it was considered a reconnect, because there had previously been power at the property. Our co-op charges $10 a foot to trench and lay line. Which was going to cost us nearly $2000. Power is a necessity, so we were prepared to shell out the money. The engineers left to go eat lunch while the utility tech finished marking the geothermal loop (since their line will go right through that loop). But, when they got back, they had the best news…. our power is going to be run FOR FREE!!! Because we are new customers and there is currently no power on the property (and hasn’t been for over 2 years), Dillon and Carey (the engineers) had gotten their boss’s permission to set up our service as a new service instead of a reconnect…meaning we get 240 feet of line at no charge. Y’all these guys went out of there way, at lunchtime no less, to save us major money. We are so incredibly thankful for them! We will have to pay for the meter base, which is a little pricy since we’re running 400amp service, but that’s it! HUGE RELIEF!!

The electric line is going to be trenched along the edge of our driveway in front of the house, then bored under the driveway to the edge of the south field where our trailer (and future barn) will be located. Since the geothermal lines from the loop into the house cross that trench, we had to dig down 24″ on top of the geothermal lines to show they would not interfere with the electric line (and so the power company didn’t risk hitting them with the trencher). Let me tell you something… our soil sucks. It is heavy, heavy clay. We’ve not had rain in over a month and it was like digging up concrete. We had to stop after about 8″ and run into town to buy a pick axe. Nevertheless, we prevailed, and 4 hours later we had a large pile of crappy dirt in our driveway and a large 2-foot-deep trench in front of the bushes.

It doesn’t look like much, but damn it was a pain in the butt! The good news is, we didn’t find the geothermal lines. They’re supposed to be 4-6 feet down, so it’s good to know they were installed correctly.
Since the spray paint was hard to see, I put pinks dots over the top of it on the picture. Those dots are the geothermal lines running from the loops in the driveway to the basement. And that’s our lovely trench in front of them.
No, those are not rocks. That’s our soil. And under my hand… also not rocks. Soil. Good old Owen County clay. Farming this is going to be a real treat.

Now that we have a game plan with the power company, we have to get our pedestal installed. The electrician will be out Wednesday to take care of that. Then the pedestal has to be inspected and green-tagged by the building inspector. Once the green tag is on, the power company will come back out and put in the line…hopefully by the end of next week. Internet is going to be run in 2 weeks as well. We’re waiting on a call back from the well guy to see if he wants to wait until power is hooked up before he runs our new water lines. Once there is water, we can get the excavator out to trench in our new septic line. Our October 27th deadline is quickly approaching, but I think we’ll get it all done.

In addition to all the exciting (and expensive) stuff, we’ve continued to clean up the property. This weekend we tackled an area near the patio. I’m not really sure why it was all overgrown like it was, maybe because the hayfield didn’t follow the tree line through there, but it needed to be cleaned up. There were several more black locust trees (or as we call them, demon trees) and weeds that were taller than me. It wasn’t a big area, but the difference is astounding.

Now your see it…
…Now you don’t!

Next weekend, we are going to focus our efforts on the overgrowth along the creek and tree line. As things start to die back in the Fall, it will be easier to remove them…and also make for less work in the Spring. The creek area is a total disaster; I bet those before and after pictures will be pretty spectacular.

We will be sure to keep y’all up-to-date on the electrician/pedestal situation. It should be done this week, but we live by Murphy’s Law, so you just never know. The tentative moving date for the trailer is October 5th. Y’all, we could have our temporary house out there in a week! The actual move date should be firmed up by the weekend. As of today (September 28th) we’ve owned the property for a month. This past week is the first time it’s really felt like things are moving along. Power, internet, moving date. We can only imagine how different it’s going to be a month from now when we’re actually living here!!!

Peace, Love, & Farming,

The Murphy’s

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New Artwork

Well, we promised to show you everything about our journey, good or bad. This week is a little bit of bad. It’s not terrible, but it was irritating. When we got out to the farm on Saturday morning, we discovered some new artwork on one of our basement walls. Initially we were pretty miffed. There has been no vandalism to the property in the 2+ years it sat vacant, but within 4 weeks of us owning it, someone graffitis our basement. We did make a police report…not with the intention of catching the culprit, more as an FYI in case there are additional incidents. Soon, there will be construction equipment and materials on site, and we don’t want any of those to come up missing or damaged. After the initial anger wore off, we did kind of have to laugh about it. It is tree marking paint, so it’s easier to clean that regular spray paint. The area that’s painted is not somewhere visible from the road. And let’s be honest, male genitalia is pretty funny.

This is the Weiner Wall! LMAO It will be cleaned up next weekend, but it has given us a bit of a chuckle (after the anger wore off).

Now on to the weekly progress. Our main focus was to get a path cleared to the well. The path needed to be large enough to get a work truck through and broken down enough a trencher won’t get hung up in the brush. We got it done….and forgot to take an after picture! #fail We do have a before picture though.

Obviously you can’t see the well (don’t worry I marked it for you) in this picture. All the mess in front of it, which was primarily sticker bushes and buttonbush shrubs, is now gone…and the well is clearly visible (I might remember to get a picture next weekend). Since this picture was taken from a distance, it’s hard to tell just how deep the weeds and brush go, but it’s about 50 feet from the grass to the edge of the North field where the well sits.

We also started tackling the old tiles and tack strips left in the basement. It is all stuff that has to come out before construction can begin. The basement also needs to be power-washed, but that will have to wait until we have water access. After several hours of work (and some bloodshed), we didn’t get very far. Apparently, we need a floor scraper. In addition to everything else going on this week, it looks like a trip to Menard’s is in the plans.

This used to be a kitchen/bar area (or so we’re guessing). The tile has to go and the concrete has to be cleaned prior to the start of construction. Fingers are still crossed for a late-November construction start date.
This used to be a bathroom, and will probably be a bathroom for us when we decide to finish the basement. However, we have to start with a completely clean slate for the build.
I know it doesn’t look like we did much, but about half the bathroom tile and about half the kitchen tile have been removed (see the pile on the top left). The dirt will all have to be pressure washed and squeegeed off the slab. Hopefully next week’s after picture will have NO TILE in it!

As you know, a few weeks ago we bought a singlewide trailer to serve as our temporary housing while the main house is being built. On Friday, we got our building permit, which covers the proper install of the trailer and all the site electrical work. Today, we finalized the sale and have a tentative moving date! That is a HUGE relief! It will be torn down and prepared for transport next week with plans to move it the week of 10/5.

There is so much to get done this week. Existing electric and fiber are being marked today or tomorrow. Geothermal and septic are being marked on Friday. Holey Moley or 811 is for public utilities, which in our area is limited to electric, fiber, and phone. Geothermal, well, septic, propane, etc… are private utilities and can only be marked by private companies. For those of you curious, private utility location is going to cost us about $290 for an hour’s worth of work (that is using electromagnetic locating only; GPR is considerably more and would be useless for our needs). We’re also hoping to schedule a meeting with an engineer from the power company to decide how to run power from our existing transformer box to our trailer. The trailer is going where our barn will be built after the house is completed, so the electric line will need to be permanent. We’re also planning to use the pole for construction, so there will be no need for a temporary pole later. The straightest line from the box to the site is right through our geothermal field, which is not good (hence the $290 expenditure above…way better than $15K to replace a destroyed geothermal loop). We’re hoping the power company will foot most, if not all, of the bill for the line extension, since the amount of power we’re going to be using over the next 2.5 years could be pretty substantial. We’ll keep you posted on that whole process, since it was really difficult to find useful information online regarding existing electric line extension.

Well and septic hook-up will come after the trailer is in place. When the water line is run from the well to the trailer, a new water line will also be run from the well to the existing foundation (and capped off until ready to use) to save money. Even though it’s going to cost a little more up front, all the utilities being run for use with the trailer will be permanent. Since they will all be used later for the barn, it seemed ridiculous to pay for temporary service now, then pay to have it removed, only to pay to have it put in permanently later.

As you can see, the next few weeks are going to be pretty busy and result in MAJOR changes at the farm. We’ll keep you posted on everything and may even try to get a video up on our YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/channel/UCdoNNJ3ua-ug_DCL41tCI_Q).

Peace, Love, & Farming

The Murphy’s

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Great Neighbors!

Before we get into the progress made this weekend, we have to take a few minutes to brag on our neighbors. As many of you know, our main focus since buying our property has been clearing around the foundation so our drafter has full access to get precise measurements. Our yard (not to be confused with our fields) has been in desperate need of attention. It’s obvious it hasn’t seen a mower at all this year. Since we are not yet living at the farm, we have no equipment out there and discussed hiring a landscape company to bush hog our yard. It just hadn’t happened yet. Well….surprise! Our neighbors took care of it this past week! They knew it was on our to-do list, but we had more pressing things to take care of first. So they crossed it off our list for us. We offered to pay them, reimburse them, anything. The answer was simply ‘nah, that’s what we do out here.’ Y’all, how did we get so lucky??? So many, many, many thanks to our awesome neighbors!!!

Front yard, pulling in the driveway
Standing near the foundation, looking towards the road (and the awesome neighbor’s property). Last week, this was over knee high and thick and folded over.

With the grass all knocked down, it was so much easier for us to get around the sides and back of the foundation to remove all of the brush. The patio was completely surrounded by black locust trees. For those of you who don’t know about black locust, it is EXTREMELY invasive. It’s actually a member of the bean family (weird, right?), so it’s a great nitrogen fixer. However, it spreads very fast and is almost impossible to kill. And it has nasty thorns…both of us are covered in cuts from removing dozens of these stupid trees. Apparently, mature black locust trees are not nearly as thorny and are much sought after by woodworkers. There must be a mature tree along our creek since there were so many young trees around our foundation. In addition to the black locust, there were so many other plants and vines. We cut down everything and then realized some of the vines are black raspberry vines…so hopefully those come back next year. Prepare yourself for lots of pictures!

That’s our patio. When the house was standing, this was completely enclosed and used as a garden/tropical plant room (or so we’ve been told). It has plumbing and irrigation still in place. At some point down the road, we may put a roof over it and add a fireplace, but for now it will just be a nice, open patio.
Another view of the patio. This is looking towards the house… or what will be the house. The concrete block will be evened out and covered with stone, then a railing will be added around the perimeter.
I can’t even believe this is what the backyard looks like now! A week ago, everything was at least waist-high. The giant pile is all the black locust trees and brush we cleared out. This picture doesn’t begin to do it justice. Once it all dries out, it’ll be burned.
This is probably our favorite feature of the ‘house.’ It looks like a mess in the picture, but it looks a hundred times better than it did a couple days ago. Some of the top stones on the limestone retaining wall have shifted (probably by the demolition crew that tore down the house), so we’ll have to move those back into place. But we love the look of the brick from the original house and are hoping it can be incorporated into our new house.
After cutting back the vegetation last week, a lot of it is starting to die off. Now you can see the pond. We think the liner is still there, so we just need to reset some rocks.
This is the stream that flows from the pond. It definitely needs some stone work, but it’s nice to be able to see what we’re working with now.
With everything cut and dying back, the front porch is on full display. We are still unsure if we’re going to use the front porch; it mostly depends on what our drafter comes up with. If we don’t use it, we will try to use the stones for something else, as a little homage to the original house.
It’s been hard to see just how big the basement is because of all the vegetation growing in and around it. This picture was taken standing on the patio looking down into the basement. At some point before construction starts, we’ll have to sweep and power wash the basement floor and remove the old tile. There is existing plumbing for a full bathroom and a kitchen, as well as a sump pit and lift station for the septic.
We love seeing these pollinators already making themselves at home on our farm! They will be much needed next year. We haven’t seen many honey bees, but are hopeful we can attract them once we have some flowers in and around our fields.
We have skinks! They are insectivores and eat all sorts of pests…and have no interest in eating plants. Another great little creature to have on the farm. They really like to hide in our rocks and sun themselves on the patio.

We had a list of stuff to get done before the trailer arrives. We still don’t have a definite moving date for the trailer yet, but we’ve nearly finished our entire list. Last thing to do is clear out the creek bed over to the well, so we can get a water line run for the trailer. That does not mean there is nothing else to do, it just means the most pressing chores are done. Since those chores had the biggest visual impact, the next few blogs may not have many pictures (or at least not many pictures with a wow factor).

On the drive home today, we were talking about how nearly everyone we’ve met has been so kind and genuine and welcoming, and how we can’t imagine living anywhere else. It’s hard to believe we skipped over this property several times and then had to visit it several times before deciding to buy it. Throughout the buying process there were so many things that had to go perfectly right for it to be ours. And we said then if everything went through without a hitch, we knew it was meant to be. Yet it seems every time we’re working at the farm we receive some little reaffirmation of our decision. Our community has accepted us and we’ve been presented with some possible business opportunities we never could’ve imagined. There is a peace that comes over us both when we’re there, and it already feels like home. We’re 100% sure we ended up right where we’re meant to be. So thanks to the big man upstairs for knowing exactly what we needed even when we didn’t.

Peace, Love, & Farming,

The Murphy’s

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Rain Delay

We started out yesterday with a hefty to-do list. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans…A couple of hours into our day, it started raining. Which put the kabash on most of our plans. However, our main task was to get our mailbox installed, and we got that done!

The mailbox post is from Ace Hardware. It did require some basic assembly. The mailbox is from Menards.

Having both lived in neighborhoods where all the mailboxes were supplied and looked the same, we actually spent a fair amount of time picking out a mailbox. I know, it seems ridiculous. We opted for a cedar post to match the timber beams that will be on our front porch. And we both liked the gray mailbox, instead of the typical black mailboxes we’re used to. (Please note the awesome address numbers…courtesy of my Cricut skills! LOL) Since the mailbox is in, I spent a good chunk of time this afternoon placing all my 2021 seed catalog orders. It was pretty fun (and a little surreal) to put our new address on the order forms!

In addition to the mailbox, we were able to clear the area between the driveway and the patio before the skies opened up. This was a priority because it’s where our septic tanks are located. We are hoping to get the property bush hogged this coming weekend, and the tank lids need to be exposed to keep from getting run over. (Side note: For those of you that have no idea what bush hogging is, it’s pretty much just mowing really, really high grass. It uses a mowing deck that is designed to knock down the crazy tall stuff, as opposed to a finish mower that is used for typical lawn maintenance.) Unfortunately, I forgot to get a before picture, but I can assure you the picture below is a vast improvement!

We can finally see the patio! The big pile of brush is blocking the view of the concrete septic tank lids, but trust me, they are there…and would cause a lot of damage to the bush hog if they got run over.

Our goal was to get rid of all the giant shrubs all the way around the patio. Obviously, we didn’t get very far. Once it’s all cleared out, I’ll get better pictures of the patio (or at least that’s what we call it). It’s a very unique feature…It has water lines and drains and a very intricate pattern in the concrete. According to the neighbors, the previous owner used it as a garden room, with tons of plants and flowers. Since all of our plants will be on the outside, we really don’t have a need to enclose it. We’ve played around with a few ideas, but it seems best suited as a nice patio space for us (maybe with a hot tub?).

I apologize, this post is kinda boring and uneventful. I was hoping to have some awesome before and after pictures from clearing the entire west side of the house, but obviously that didn’t happen. I guess Mother Nature was giving us farmers a little reminder that no matter what our plans are, her plans always come first. At least we were able to get a few important items crossed off the list. Hopefully next weekend will be full of nice weather and the opportunity for lots more pictures!

Peace, Love, & Farming,

The Murphy’s

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Work In Progress

We have been hard at work at the ranch. For now, you won’t see many (if any) pictures of our fields. The north field is currently in corn, and the south field is currently in hay. Both fields will be done for the season in the next 4-6 weeks. At that point, they will either be cover cropped or tarped in preparation for Spring planting. More on all that at a later date.

That being said, our main focus has been around the house…or should I say what used to be the house. Our property is a bit unique in that it has an existing foundation from a previous house. Long story short, the previous house was relatively new when it was struck by lightning and burned. The only thing left of the original house is the foundation, which consists of a stone front porch, full walkout basement, and 3-car garage slab. In the coming months, we plan to use that foundation for our new home. Don’t panic, the foundation has been signed off on by our structural engineer, so it is safe to use.

The area immediately around the ‘house’ has not seen a mower or weedeater since the house burned down 3 years ago. So our focus has been getting that area cleaned up. The flowerbeds around the old home were extensive, and clearing them out has been quite a chore. We’ve spent three solid days working on them, and there is still a ways to go. We haven’t even touched the yard yet (which, in some places, is chest high on me!). I have included a couple before pictures so you can see the mess we’ve been dealing with.

Front of the House. You can barely see the stone porch columns over the weeds.
Opposite view front of the house. You can barely see the stone column at the corner of the garage.
Middle of the Driveway Loop. There are some beautiful trees and shrubs in there… I promise!

The pictures don’t even begin to do it justice. It is a lot of hard work, but we’re enjoying it. There is something to be said about getting to live out your dream with your best friend and life partner. So yes, it may be hard work, but we’re together…and we know it’s just the beginning of a whole lot more hard work. Fear not, I have included a few progress pictures.

Looking toward the garage (That’s my truck parked in the garage!). There are a few plants we’ll be keeping here…the evergreen tree on the left, the low evergreen bush in the middle, and the large shrub on the right (for now).
View standing in the driveway looking toward the front porch. The previous owner had two big ponds and a stream that flowed between them. Initially, our plans were to level this whole area and start over, but now that we can actually see the ponds, we may keep them. The stone porch columns may or may not stay…depends on what our drafter comes up with.
I took this picture standing in front of my truck (on the garage slab), so this is our front yard. A week ago, it was so full of weeds and brush, I couldn’t even walk through here.
This is the loop in the driveway, but the picture is taken in the opposite direction from the ‘before’ picture. I actually took this picture before we cut down the large tree in the middle. The two large arborvitae are staying, as are the viburnum bushes (purple flowers in the back). The massive rosebush on the left is a maybe. We’re going to give it a haircut and see what it looks like in the Spring.

On the to-do list for tomorrow is installing our mailbox and knocking down all the brush around our septic tanks and patio. I will try to remember to take some before pictures. Over the next two weeks, we’ll have to clear a path to the well and to the electrical box, because…. our temporary house arrives the end of the month!!! We discussed many different options for housing while we waited for our house to be built. And we felt the best option was to live on the property during construction… that way we could watch over the job site after hours and be close by to see the progress each day. After kicking around several ideas, a manufactured home seemed to be the best choice. It’s fairly easy to get onto the property and should be fairly easy to sell and move off the property once the new house is finished. After several weeks of searching and having 2 trailers sold out from under us, we are happy to say we purchased one a few days ago!!! Here is a picture.

This is Casa del Murphy! The outside could use a good power washing and maybe a new paint job in the Spring. The inside has been completely redone, we’re just going to paint the walls since lavender isn’t our color.

To keep our expenses lower, we opted to go with a used one (new ones depreciate just like new cars). And the one we found is perfect for us! Yes it’s small, but it’s only temporary (and beats the hell out of an RV, because that was our back-up plan). I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures on moving day…we should have that date by the end of the week.

So much has happened in the past few weeks and so much more is going to be happening in the next few weeks. We spent several minutes this afternoon just sitting on our garage slab looking at what is now Murphy’s Law Ranch. It’s hard to believe this beautiful little piece of paradise is ours. We are so excited to share our journey with you! Stay tuned for more updates!

Peace, Love, & Farming,

The Murphy’s