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.

Summer is Here!

Yes, summertime is here in Alabama. We have had numerous thunderstorms and the temps have been consistently between 85 and 95 degrees. We are supposed to be 97 degrees tomorrow. I love the heat. One of the things I disliked about Michigan was the cold. It's too cold for too long. The folks down here love their A/C. It's seems like everywhere I go it's freezing inside. Here at McD's I think they keep it at 65 degrees it here! It's been almost a month since my last post. I will have mobile Internet access in a couple weeks and I should be able to post more often. I have been really busy with work. It's been very exciting to see God continue to bless me with open doors. I have been working almost everyday and don't usually get back home until after dark. I try to make time for the gym and write new post when I can. There hasn't been much progress on the property because I have been working so much. I did get started on a culvert. I have a couple of jobs to finish and then I'm going to take a week and work on clearing the rest of the trees along the road. I am going to rent some equipment to do it and this should help make for quicker progress. I will be back in Michigan for the weekend of June 26-29 to see my family. You know, I have to admit I was nervous about making such a big change in life and having to deal with fetching water, using a generator for power, living in a camper, ect., but the hardest part by far has been not having my wife and kids with me. I can't wait until they come down to stay. I ordered trusses for a pole barn and hopefully in about a month I should have things ready for them.

Here are some pics from the last month. My cousins Mike and Chris came down to work for a week during their layoff (Ford).

Here are some pics of some cool or funny things I saw.






A couple of the roofs we did. We built this back porch covering and installed steel roofing on the entire house.




Finished this one yesterday.







Chris, Mike, Me, Randall, taken right after a breakfast buffet at Shoney's!

Another Week Gone!

Time flies when your having this much fun. The rain did not stop for almost a week straight. We finished a roof last week on Wednesday and it has rained every day since. Today was the first of a few sunny days we are going to have this week. I got my truck stuck in the mud again on Saturday. It's been so wet that we haven't been able to do much work on the drive, not to mention I don't have the extra money to do it all at one time. We have to work in stages as we can afford it. Today we put a culvert in and some stone over it. I'm going to need a lot of stone. My neighbor Doug came over and spread the stone over the tile for me. Saturday, Randall and I went to the Albertville Air Show for a few hours. It was one of the most exciting things to watch. These pilots that fly these stunt planes are truly artists of the sky. They make these planes dance in the sky like butterflies. It was a cool way to spend an afternoon. I wish my wife and kids were here to enjoy it with me. I will see them this weekend when I return to Michigan for the holiday. So far, work has been steady. I could definitely take on more, and I am getting new calls every day and making new contacts. It's all good.

This is my truck stuck in the mud







Some of you may recognize this guy, he was taking pics at the airshow



This is me in my office at McDonald's



Giddyup! Ride 'em cowboy!





Doug in his John Deere

Goin' Fishin'!

For those of you that don't know much about Guntersville, Alabama, or more specifically Lake Guntersville, let me just say that fishing is HUGE here. The ESPN Bass Pro Tournament is here this weekend and it's cool to see all the pros from around the country here with their sweet bass boats all lettered up with sponsors. Lake Guntersville is the largest man made lake in the world. It connects in with the Tennessee River. It is one of the coolest lakes I've ever seen and I can see why it's loved by fishermen. There are so many places to launch your boat and so many places to check out on the water. If you live in Guntersville and don't fish, your in the minority. Catfish is also another big catch around here. Lots of places to get some catfish for dinner too. I got a picture of a buddy we met here and he invited me and Randall to come out on his boat to go fishin'. When we got ready to launch he wasn't sure if he could get both of us on it at the same time. So we had to take turns. Check it out.



We finished our very first job here this week. Here are some pics of the house we put a roof on.

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

It's been an interesting week filled with many ups and downs. I'm sitting here at McD's while we have another tornado warning in effect. I have been blessed with 3 roof jobs already in just over a week. Unfortunately we've had rain, a lot of rain, all but 2 days. Yesterday I started my very first job here and managed to finish the house and I was supposed to do the garage this morning but the thunderstorms started about 4 am and have not quit yet. Besides the rain, I made a clerical error when measuring the roof and realized yesterday that I am short. That's contracting, sometimes your up, sometimes your down. I was a little bummed to learn I just took a big hit in the pocketbook. I didn't go in the red on this one, but I will survive and move on. If there's one thing I've learned in this business is to take your licks and move forward. Dwelling on your mistakes never does any good. The day didn't end too badly, I got another call in the afternoon to go ahead with a roof I bid 10 days ago. So it's two steps forward, one step back. But hey, at least were moving in the right direction. I'll post some pics of us at the job in the next couple of days.

Me and Randall, this was taken on one of the two nice days.