Paul and John grading the back yard a bit to keep water from ponding along the rear patio frost wall.

Paul moved the larger piles of dirt around with the excavator while John smoothed things over with the skid steer. Jeff carried all the hay out from the basement and piled it on the patio.

The basement as it looks now, with the wood, hay, and insulation removed.

A view of the back of the house, with the hay piled up and the yard rough-graded. Work continued around the west side of the house.

Paul moved more dirt up against the house to give our ladders a few more inches of reach. We can't dig out the pond for fill dirt yet because it's still too wet.

Sweeping the shovel sideways helps smooth things out while pushing dirt at the same time.

Paul also started a temporary drain trough to allow water that had been sitting near the sump outlet to flow away from the house.

Looking from Paul's view. After dragging the teeth through the dirt, he used the back side of the shovel to level and compact the furroughs.

It was such a nice day that Jillena brought Stephen out to check out the progress on his new home.

Jillena looking things over as a good "supervisor" does. Is that Folgers in your cup?

Jeff's Aunt Jill also walked out from the family farm across the road.

Paul and John pitching the hay onto a wagon. The cows will be getting a treat tonight!

There are 18 vertical log columns used to support the roof and first floor. These all need to sit on concrete piers above finished slab level. Since the logs are round, we wanted to have them sit on round piers.

So we found 9 plastic buckets and cut 6" tall rings out of them. These will be the forms for the piers. With the slab being 4" thick, the columns will sit 2" above finished floor.

That's Jeff with the rotary hammer. After measuring each column location on the footers, we drilled holes for the rebar anchor pins.

Using the form ties left in the walls, some rope and a piece of plywood, Paul made a temporary work table.

A robin has taken up residence behind one of the lifting poles.

Some of the interior footers will hold two piers for two columns, a short one for a 1st floor girder and a tall one for the roof.