I Been Workin'

Started work on the area where I want to build a flat pad for the RV. It's the same area that the RV sat on but...well...it's on  a bit of a slope in the driveway. Like a drop of 15 inches in 10 feet slope.

 The Site, pre-construction

Today I used the backhoe and front end loader to break up and move the driveway so as to level things off a little. I spent over four hours in the saddle of the Kubota.

There's still a slope but once I've built a retaining wall on the lower end using 6"x6" (two high and two wide at the base) and fill the area with pea stone gravel, I should have a much more level area.

After removing many loads of dirt and stone.

There's a drop if 6" or so on the left and a flat area 

on the right where the retaining wall will sit.

We had 0.38 inches of rain over night and through much of the morning so the lawn was soggy and took a beating from my driving the tractor back and forth on it. It was also quite slick and even in 4-wheel drive I slipped and skidded from time to time. It doesn't help that quite often there are flat rocks just beneath the surface. The turf gets ripped off them pretty quickly.

 You can see the damage on the slope leading from the lawn to the driveway.

More lawn damage where I was depositing the dirt and rocks (on the left)

...and turning the tractor around.

I'm not too worried about the lawn. Sure, it will look like hell for the rest of the season, but I'll overseed it when I'm done and let nature take its course. Most of it was clover and plantain anyway.

Tomorrow I start bolting some of those 6"x6"s together. I hope.

Snowy Morning At the Aerie

I was going to write about how we have enjoyed some Camelot Snow over the last week or so. (That's an inch or so of snow that arrives over night but melts away during the day.) The weather folks forecast a 2-4 inch fall overnight that would be followed by some pretty heavy rain which would wash it all away. Didn't happen. Those prognosticators proved they were NOT Merlin. We got the snow but no following rain.

Some 4+ inches of heavy, wet snow lay on the ground--which had been completely bare thanks to bright sunshine and 45+ degree temperatures on Thursday. Terry tackled the deck while I started with the shovel on the driveway. I soon gave that up and started up the tractor. (I deemed the snow too wet and heavy for the snow thrower to be of much use.) It took some time and I scrapped a good bit of the gravel and dirt that comprises the driveway, but the job did get done.

Terry headed out to the Bradford library for one of her stitching meetings and I went for t he mail. Our road hadn't been touched by a plow yet and the going was a bit rough but it was down hill. The paved roads and the dirt portion serviced by the school buses (two hour delay) had been plowed and were quite passable. Coming back up the hill I needed to switch over to 4-wheel high and had only a few moments when the Tundra slipped in the heavy snow. Of course, I was followed by the snow plow that cleared the road and spread some cinders in its wake.

The temp is now 35-36 degrees and there's a bit of a drizzle falling so what's left on the road and driveway may well be gone before things freeze up tonight.

The birds are pleased that the feeders are filled. I'm happy that the driveway and road are cleared and Terry should have little difficulty getting home this afternoon with the pizza she'll pick up in Troy. I even saw three deer pass through the back part of the yard when the snow plow created enough racket to stir them from their beds. Even the cats are happy--they just got fed.

Time for another cup of coffee.

New Toy

Got my delivery from A.J.'s Outdoor Equipment around noon today. A quick walk-thru for all the attachments and whatnot and then I signed for the Kubota BX25.







With rain in the forecast for the next couple of days, I've moved it into the garage, displacing Terry's little yellow Aveo. The Aveo could use the washing anyway no that mud season has started to rear its head.