House Construction: From mid-September to early-December Ranger Leon and his wife Sandra lived in a cabin at Hickory Hills while the house at McFarlane was being replaced. Most of their belongings were stored in a Semi-trailer parked in the McFarlane shop parking lot. Before the old house could be removed two trees had to be cut down and the electrical, sewer, water, propane, and telephone had to be disconnected. Additionally the back room off the house had to go since it wasn't part of the move.

The sun is setting in mid September, this was the last night Leon and Sandy spent in the old house. They have remarked on several occasions what amazing sunsets they can see from their living room windows. Truly they would miss these sights.

Following this night within two days the old double-wide trailer which they lived in was removed, and relocated to it's new owner, leaving nothing but an empty lot with tire tracks. Next a large hole was dug to accommodate a five-foot crawl space. Cement was poured and the walls for the space were put in. In the middle we see Leon putting on a coat of paint/sealer for the basement wall.

This left many piles of dirt around the new crawlspace.

Following this the dirt was pushed back to surround the new crawlspace walls, this was a delectate process as pushing to far to hard could easily cause one of the walls to buckle. Fortunately that did not happen and the new house was brought in and set, it was then joined together, heat, water, sewer, propane, and electricity were all reconnected and the phone came a few weeks later.

These pictures above are about two months old  as of 3-1-07  and in that time the outside has been finished and Leon has recently put in a walkway from the garage to the house. As you can see there is a LOT of landscaping work yet to do, and they have painted some of the rooms but haven't finished yet as they want to wait until warmer weather to vent the paint fumes better. They've been living in the new house now for nearly a month, and they are really enjoying it. I will post more pictures as I take them.

Leon constructed a makeshift walkway until the warm spring weather out of old wood and old mileage posts we can't use on the trail anymore. Can you believe it's 47 miles from the garage to the back door!

The different sides of the house. As you can see we have some landscaping to do yet. However it will have to wait until warmer weather. These pictures are about a week old as of 3-17-07 and the snow has actually melted at this point.