We have a hole in the ground

The title for this post is self-explanatory - finally, excavation has started and we now have a basement-sized hole in the ground where a house will be!

Last Thursday, I motorcycled to Edmonton to visit my Mum, son Justin, daughter-in-law Nadine, and Harlee, my 7 month old granddaughter. The weather forecast was promising and Carol needed the car back in Kamloops, so it made sense to take the bike. I had a super ride out, seeing several bears, mountain sheep and a variety of deer to add to the spectacular scenery of the Rocky Mountains. It was cool and drizzling all the way until the final 90 kms. The wind then became very strong and switched around to come from the south, bringing a 12*C jump in temperature and clear blue skies for the last hour of my trip. It was great to spend a few days with my family and get to know Harlee better. I hadn't seen her since she was less than a week old, last October.
Carol had stayed in Kamloops as she was attending a "timing clinic" as part of her preparation to be a volunteer at the Canada Western Summer Games, being held here early in August. She will be an official at the pool events, an area in which she is very qualified to work. The clinic ran first thing on Saturday morning after which she was picking up Alex and going up to Barnhartvale to see if Bob had managed to get started on the basement. He had! It is not really a giant hole as the house will have a daylight, walk-out basement. It sits on a gentle slope so the front will be at "finish grade" and the back of the house will be dug into the hill.

I realize that the pictures are not very exciting - Carol standing in a hole next to a pile of dirt - but it's what it represents that makes it exciting. The actual work on the house has started! Yay!