As part of the continuing updates to our property, we’ve added some additional walkways. These serve three purposes. 1) We found that lots of dirt was being tracked into the bunkhouse, so that needed to be addressed; 2) the bunkhouse felt separate from the rest of the buildings and 3) we expect to replace the lean-to ‘barn’ to be replaced with an actual barn, so these walkways will help link everything together. So, we hoped extending the walkway would help incorporate the buildings.

This is one of the few tasks that we decided to hire a contractor to complete. Unfortunately, our calls to local contractors proved frustrating. We couldn’t get local folks to respond. Finally, Ann reached out to Wine Country Landscaping in Milton-Freewater, about an hour away. They gave us a free estimate and had great reviews. It’s a young company, but they are eager to grow, easy to work with, and did a great job. In fact, the guys repaired some concrete for free just to make everything look better, something they were not required to do.

At this rate, I see no reason we can’t hold some kind of jeep event next year. I’ll announce something  by January.

Here are some pre-concrete photos. This first one shows the gravel in front of the shop, an annoyance when moving something with smaller wheels from the concrete to the asphalt. To the right of the shop is a form for the new propane tank pad.

After: The concrete now runs the northern side of the shop. The white building in back is a series of lean-tos that are super inefficient space wise. We will repurpose the lean-to materials in to a hay barn and shelter for the cows and a barn will replace the existing structure. To the right is the guesthouse.

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A reader shared a rare look at a Willys Electric Light Plant, including the sleeves during cranking. In the pic below, the Willys Electric Light Plant is on the left and a rare Alamo (electric light plant?) is on the right.

Here is a video of the sleeve functioning:

Some more pics:

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