We have gate...

The original barbed wire "gate".

We woke this morning to a beautiful, clear sunny day. With clear sunny weather, however, comes the cold air and cold it was ... -18*C. Tim, our Septic Planner, had arranged to meet us at the property around noon, so we picked up Alex at 11am and headed for Gull Lake Ranch. We already had the gates in the back of the truck. We had left them there after we picked them up at Douglas Lake Equipment earlier in the week. I threw the tool bag with the cordless tools and small hand tools in the back of the truck ready to mount the gates.

Alex "supervising" while Mike drills through the post.

The first of the new gates.

Not long after we arrived at the entrance to the property, Tim showed up driving a small fwd car. We exchanged greetings and then led him up to the house site. On the way up, we noticed that Jayson had managed to install some of the plastic culverts under the road ready for the spring melt and the inevitable runoff that accompanies it. The road seemed quite good and even Tim's small car had no problem making the trek. We talked a bit about our septic needs (I have never really thought much about my septic needs before, but building a house makes you think about lots of things you didn't think you would ever need to know!) before he trundled over and down into one of the test holes Jayson had dug for him. We headed back to the entrance to attempt to install the gates. After making some measurements we drilled the holes for the first gate. After much futzing and finagling we managed to get the first one on and relatively plumb and level. Yay! We pulled a string line across the opening to ensure both gates were installed at the same height and went to drill the holes for the second one. Now, this is where the cold weather comes into play. After about 30 seconds of drilling, both batteries were completely dead - victims of the bitter cold air and the laws of physics as they pertain to stored electrical energy devices. The second gate would have to wait until tomorrow after the batteries had a chance to warm up and have a fresh charge applied.