With the Cultus Lake project now done it is time to turn our attention back to finishing the house and yard. We have a little work on the back of the house and in concert with that we will do the fencing, lawns and landscaping. I've been reshaping the grounds and laying gravel on the driveway to finalize the grades in preparation for paving. Part of that job is more railway track for the Persnickety and Doodle Railroad.

It's my view that every grampa should have an electric train (to share with their grand kids of course) My train happens to be large enough to ride in. The project that has been in progress for almost ten years but stalled since the house was started two years ago. We had to wait until the house was built and the final grades around it were determined as the tracks will circle the entire property perimeter.

Three hundred feet of track had been laid back when we built the shop. This stretch goes through the train house on the side of the shop and then alongside the driveway up to where the old house used to be. The current stage will see 300 more feet of track laid down, taking the pike up the driveway, around the front and down the east side of the house to the back fence gate. The balance of the track will have to wait until next year.

First the soil is removed and a layer of gravel is tamped into place. The track sections are twenty feet long. These are bolted to each other, laid on the ties and then carefully leveled. Concrete will be poured around the rails to form a sidewalk.

As each section of track is finished it is tested with the train of course.

We can hardly wait until we can ride the train twice as far as before.

-grampa dan