Moving Mountains

How do you move a mountain? One shovel full at a time, or in my case, with one of these!



This one is a little bit bigger than the Tonka I used to have when I was 6 years old and it can move a whole lot more dirt. This is the first time I ever rented a dozier and man is it cool. I think I had more fun on the dozier than I did on the backhoe. This thing definitely has more power and can go just about anywhere. Working dirt with a dozier takes a lot of patience. You still have to move a lot of dirt one pass at a time. The red clay was so hard I could only cut about 3 inches at a time. I worked on this front hill for about 12 hours.

Before...



After.



Sandra went back to Michigan on Monday. I miss her already. I have been working all day for 3 days now. Today I had 7 loads of stone delivered. I was spreading it with the dozier when the fuel filter stopped up. Needless to say I lost about 3 hours of work this evening. Danny, the mechanic, is coming in the morning to replace the filter and get me running again. If it wasn't this, it would be something else! I have the machine until next Monday and I still have another hill to grade and also level the ground where I'm going to build the pole barn. Of course, I'm watching the weather forecast as I write this and it looks like I'll be working in the rain.

Here's the first load.





The driver wanted to dump half his load in a low spot on the right and I swear I thought he was going to tip his truck over. This picture doesn't show how bad this truck was leaning. As he was tipping sideways, the only thought going through my mind was "Bob, if this truck tips over you have to get this on video". I reached into my backpack and the regular camera was the first thing I grabbed. So all I got was a still shot. Fortunately, it did not tip over.



I almost forgot this little genius maneuver. Before Sandra left and I had to return the backhoe, I decided to use it to move my trusses from the start of the drive to where I'm going to build. Over three quarters of a mile. It took me 8 hours! I moved 19 trusses, 3 at a time. It was very stressfull. The backhoe is very unstable when you have the arm extended with a lot of weight on the end. Every bump or stump hole felt like the machine was going to tip over. My wife could not stand the stess after the first trip she spent the next 7 hours in the camper, only coming out to bring me something to drink or take a pic of me.

Big Boy Toys!

I finally made it to the point where we were ready to break out the heavy equipment. There's something about climbing aboard one of these "cool toys for big boys" that just makes the testosterone start flowing. These machines make working a lot more fun. I really should have rented a track hoe but I had two other people tell me this is what they would use and it worked great, except that you have to set the outriggers and bucket whenever you want to dig out tree stumps. It did do the job just fine and I figured that I could use the bucket to push trees and stumps around where I needed them. The trick is to clear all the brush and stumps from the edge of the drive while maintaining a clear drive to get in and out with my truck. Once I finish clearing a few more trees where I'm going to build, I am going to rent a dozier to grade the drive and bring some gravel in to finish the job. Tomorrow morning I am meeting Samuel from the DOT to get a permit for my culvert. Of course, nothing ever goes perfect. I actually rented the machine last Wednesday and on Friday I lost a bolt that holds the shear pin on the boom and the forearm almost fell off. I managed to make the repairs on my own since these things always happen late on Friday and the rental place inevitably will be closed. No problem. One hour after starting to dig again a hydraulic line blew. Fluid sprayed everywhere. Well I pulled the line off and was able to get a new one made on Saturday morning. Amazing! I thought for sure I was done for the weekend. It's difficult to find specialty places like this open on the weekend, let alone be able to make me a new line in about 10 minutes. Sandra came down on Sunday and is here for a week while the kids stay with grandma. Next Sunday is our 12 year anniversary. I'm just happy to have her all to myself for a week.






Here's a pic of the busted line, it rubbed on the frame underneath.



Check out the size of this pine tree stump. It took me a half hour to dig it out.



This is a pic Sandra took of this bird that has been following me for 5 days of the backhoe. He figured out that if he hangs around and while I do the digging, he can reap the benefits of fresh food without all the work. He stays with me everywhere I go on this machine. He's like my little Woodstock.

Goin' Mobile!

I finally upgraded my cell phone this week to a Blackberry and I now have mobile Internet. This thing is so cool. I'm able to access the net now anytime, anywhere. I tried twice this week to blog at McD's and both times there was something wrong with their connection and I couldn't log on. It stinks when I purposely make time to go blog and I can't get access. Not anymore. I was separated from my wife and kids this year on Father's Day. That was difficult. I spent the following weekend with them instead. I already had plans for that weekend to return to Michigan for a graduation party. Sunday I took my wife and kids to Cedar Point. It was a blast! It was really cool now that they are older and will ride almost all of the rides with me. The biggest surprise was Becca, my youngest. She rode every coaster with me. She was so excited to spend the day with me. The look on her face when we were just about to go over the big drop was priceless. She would scream "Were gonna die!" as we rode and as soon as the ride ended she would say "Let's do it again!". It was great. I was just happy to have some time with them.



Work has been good. I'm staying busy and at the same time trying to continue to work on building. I cut down about a half acre of trees so far where I'm going to build a pole barn. I got a great deal on some used trusses from a chicken house that was being taken down. I spent a third of what it would have cost me. They delivered them 10 days ago. I'm going to build a 40 foot by 70 foot barn. I still have a lot of trees to clear and brush to chip. I'm renting a backhoe in 2 weeks to clear the road and pull all the stumps. My beautiful wife is coming down to lend me a hand. I'm sure this will be a great bonding experience. I'm really looking forward to it.
Click on the pictures to see a larger image.

40 foot wide scissor trusses.



Beautiful butterfly.



Trees down.



This is a pic of the "driveway"
that will someday soon lead to my cabin.



This is a picture of what we are going
to build with some minor changes.