Sunday, September 27, 2009

Portland in a Day

I took a quick trip down to Portland to do a Phase I site visit of an acre lot that had two houses constructed within the last five years. The drive down and back on I-5 is usually not too bad. I got an early start avoiding the bulk of Seattle traffic and arriving in Portland after their morning rush.

It should have been a slam dunk but I found an old unlabeled drum. I also found that 15 truckloads of fill dirt were placed on the property. What seemed like an easy residential Phase I turns out to have a couple RECs that will take a few extra paragraphs in the report. Things are never as easy as they seem.


Saturday, September 26, 2009

Ending the Week



















It’s Friday and just an hour or so before the lunch hour. I have a plan in my mind to tackle a few tasks that will carry me through the end of the day. I’m just looking for the motivation to carry out those tasks to the end of the work day. I should know better by now than to make plans because in this business, when the phone rings all the best laid plans fly out the window, if only Class A office space windows would, in fact, open.

And so the call comes in and I’m standing in one of my colleague’s office with another colleague. A client is ready to close on about 500 acres of working forestland out by Black Diamond. And gosh, they realize they need an updated Phase I. My initial thought was how this was messing up my Friday plans. Then I realized that I could do the site visit this afternoon if I hustled. Another colleague would get the project setup in our system and make all the requisite database and historical orders. This would be a perfect day to end Friday, a walk in the woods.

I made it out to the Black Diamond area at about 2 pm. I still had 500 acres to cover. I drove over the old logging roads, which were still in good shape for a passenger car like mine. I followed every un-drivable side road and trail on foot. That’s the best you can do in densely wooded areas. I didn’t see anything exciting or unexpected, just the usual rubbish in places, spent shotgun shells, shot up electrical equipment, an abandoned and overturned pickup truck. It was a little spooky at times because there are bears and cougars in the area.

I managed to wrap up as darkness closed in. I swung by the Black Diamond Bakery and they were still open. I picked up a loaf of Crystal Mountain bread and a big fat frosted walnut brownie. This was a great way to end the week.