Whew!

The trailer is in! Woohoo!!

Mom toasting the trailer. Current name options: Bessie or Tom. Not sure why.

It was quite a process. We had gone about 170 miles east of us to see it and purchase it, only to find that it would really be a hassle - logistically and legally - to get it back to our property. So. The kind seller offered to deliver it to us, and on Saturday he and his right hand man did.

The bottom of our driveway is a bit steep, and due to a few day's worth of rain and the fact that it has never been graveled (only graded 40 years ago?), it can be a bit tricky to get up it. I take it at full speed (about 35 since you turn into it) and coast up it in order to not get stuck and to not make giant ruts in it.

Now. When you're hauling a 32ft trailer behind you, you can't really take a running start. And poor Mike got stuck in the mud. Fortunately - The Beast has a winch on the front end of it, and we were able to haul them up out of the front of the driveway no problem.

While the winch had no problem pulling the weight, I had to sit in the truck and STAND on the brake to keep The Beast from rolling forward. Hence my arm sticking out the window and holding on for dear life, while my dad nonchalantly mans the winch control.

Free of the driveway!

Our driveway, as I may have mentioned before, is estimated at about 600 ft* -and it's got a 90 degree turn about 2/3 of the way down. Our original plan was to overshoot the turn (we cleared a bunch out of the way in preparation), and then back down the rest of the driveway so that the trailer sat facing trailer hitch forward at the end. This would also conveniently put the door to the trailer facing the lake.

Preparing to back down the driveway. Before we found out the half ton Mike was in was slightly too long and we had to switch trucks.

We kind of did that. 1 hour, 2 trucks, 3 burly men, and 4 bystanders later - we got it in.

Zora is 'helping'

Mom (and I, but mostly my mom) immediately started scrubbing the thing, and this requires water.

Simple Green is the bomb diggity.

Ahh. Water. It's amazing how you suddenly become incredibly conscious of how much water you use when you have to haul it out of a well hand over hand and then drag the now heavy bucket up an incline that didn't seem to exist until you were carrying a bucket with 6 gallons of water in it.

First you have to open the well cap with a 48 inch pipe wrench which weighs almost as much as me.

Next, you drop the bucket down, listen for it to hit, listen for it to make the "I'm full" farting noise, and then haul it up. It helps to work your side abs for this step. Hence the funny face.

Now the fun part: lift the lever in the handle and watch the past 5 minutes' worth of hard work come gushing out the bottom.
Rinse, repeat.

But when I came home on that first night we had the trailer and saw it gleaming at the end of the driveway, I was incredibly happy, and totally looking forward to the next step.

Home sweet home.

The next step? Getting electricity. Mostly for a well pump :)

*UPDATE - the driveway is 1150 ft long. I grew up with the metric system. This foot business is beyond me.