Not everyone likes Mondays. Or rainy days. But today we were happy to start the week under cloudy skies and intermittent drizzle because mid-morning this truck from Payne Building Movers arrived at the farm carrying the wheels that will roll our old farmhouse onto its new foundation. What a welcome sight!

The Payne crew worked with Fox & Sons crew to ready the house for the move. The first thing they did was to attach a yellow iron beam to the two iron beams running lengthwise under the house.

Next they unloaded the wheels, four sets of eight-wheeled dollies, each capable of carrying 50 tons. The Red House weighs about 110 tons.

After the dollies were unloaded, a crew of eight men maneuvered them into place under the house and clamped them to the beams. Then, with the dollies in place, they jacked up the house high enough to lift it off the wooden cribs that had been supporting it.

From under the house, we caught a glimpse of an old beam, a log still with its bark still on nailed to the sill with antique cut nails, most likely dating back to 1805.

Once all four dollies were attached to the beams, the crew disassembled all the cribbing and stacked it in these carriers to be moved to the new foundation site.

At the end of the day, the house was ready to roll.

It was a very productive day.

But there were a few quiet moments in which to appreciate the natural beauty that surrounds the Red House.