Issue One (and a half…)

December 9, 2019
3 minute read
534 words
11 photos

Like Lewis and Clark…

The surveyor’s office looked like a moving crew and a bunch of toddlers had collided. It wasn’t pretty, and neither was the timeline. 4-5 weeks. Yikes! Even if we were willing to shell out the $700 to have our boundary lines marked, it was going to cost us a month. Every surveyor in the region had stacks of work higher than a forest. Austin’s sprawling like a sunbathing cat, and the lack of rain over the summer meant that the building industry hadn’t taken a siesta.

I texted Robert the news, and he wrote back that he was working on a solution.

Our driveway and utilities were all waiting on one little line. We had a basic survey and the corners of our land were marked. We just needed somebody to shoot us a straight line from point to point.

Couldn’t be too hard to do ourselves, right?

First we tried using a long-range self-leveling laser. A high-powered laser on one point and the receiver on the other point. We could pick it up 1500 ft away no problem, but as soon as we locked the rotating laser in place it was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Back to the drawing board. It was looking like we might just be at the mercy of the surveyors.

Then Robert sent me this:

“I’ve got it! A rifle scope!”

Turns out that’s how Lewis and Clark found straight lines for rough surveying and mapmaking.  

Guess what? It still works.  

“I was gonna say you look really good through a scope, but that’s kind of a weird thing to tell someone.”

“Yeah, I’m not sure how I feel about that.”  

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Thanks to everyone who came out on the 16th!

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Over the next few weeks…

Progress getting electricity hooked up has been slow, but they’ve taken a few steps towards getting us set up. We’re praying that things keep moving along.

Trenching and laying pipe for water.

We’re almost ready to pour the foundation.

Starting a beekeeping operation to maintain agricultural use of our land.

What’s in a name?

Struan (n.) The place where a stream begins… a place of birth and growth and spilling goodness out into all the world.

And a half…

…since Robert was tardy sending this out because (woohoo!) we were breaking ground over the weekend!!

Here’s a preview of December’s news…

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A toast to you, and yours…

May it be a journey you find
when you git where yer goin’
and someone to go with you
all ways.

EXTRA special thanks this month to these delighfulest folks…

Mama Tiffany, Mama & Daddy Brace, Mr. & Mrs. Guzman, Elizabeth Depwe, Joshua James, Robert’s sisters and Ransom, Spencer & Mareli Ripple, Ana Lerma, and you-who-shall-not-be-named, you know who you are.

We wouldn’t be where we are without you!

See you out there.

R+L