"Rockage"

We are digging in a part of the build site where there is a lot of rock on the surface.  Most of our rock is limestone and the rocks that are buried are almost always rust colored.  But the ones that have been lying on the surface for the past few thousand years have weathered to a lovely grey color.  I have been saving a number of these for future landscaping projects.

These two big rocks were recently removed from our excavation.  Note my hat for scale.
Some day I want to set them up as standing stones a' la Avebury.

Smaller pretty rocks I add to this pile.

Nick Finds a Salamander

Nick found this guy under the trailer this afternoon.  We took it to the other side of the stream to a safe place where it is unlikely to get run over or stepped on. 

Hosing Down the Roads

It has been surprisingly dry so far this Spring.  In fact we are getting into some of the dusty and dry conditions on the roads that we did not experience until mid-summer last year.  We decided that it would be a good idea to wet the roads down a bit; not enough to make mud, but just enough to keep the dust away and get some solid traction with the equipment.  We do not have a well yet but there is water in the stream.  We obtained a 12V pump which could run off the tractor and hooked it up together with our 60 gallon water tank to create a mobile watering system.  It worked great.  And now that we have gone to this much trouble, I am sure the Spring rains cannot be far behind.

Pumping water from the stream.
We mounted the 60 gallon tank on pallet forks behind the tractor.

While we were pumping water a local crayfish paid a visit perhaps awakened by the vibration of our pump. 

Drive the tractor to where you want, turn the pump around and spray.

Dry roads become wet roads in no time at all.

A New Truck Gets to Work

We bought another vehicle at the end of last month after our F450 encountered some difficulties.  We call our new truck "Ginger" and she is a 1997 F250 Heavy Duty with a 7.3 liter diesel.  She had a few small problems when we bought her which we easily repaired.   The rear differential case leaked which we fixed with a new cover plate.  She also needed a new thermostat.  When we went to fix that, we realized she also needed a new water pump so we got her one.  A new fuel filter and a new air filter and she is running great.  We put her to immediate use hauling dirt on our land with our dump trailer.  We can haul 3 tons of dirt at a time which speeds up our excavation activities not to mention taking some of the burden off the tractor.

The F250 Heavy Duty - 4WD with an extra low setting - perfect for moving around the land.

Hooked up to "Big Red", our dump trailer, she is ready to haul dirt.

WIth three tons of dirt in the trailer, she is positioned to dump.

We can back her right up to the edge of the fill zone for maximum efficiency.

Three tons of dirt can be placed right where you want it. 

Easter R & R

We took Easter Sunday off and visited my sister-in-law in Baltimore.  We brought them some West Virginia firewood and started a nice fire in their Chimenia.  I made some forks out of lengths of stainless steel welding wire and we roasted marshmallows - actually we roasted Peeps, which are in fact just marshmallows.  We are turning this into something of a family Easter tradition - roasted Peeps over an open fire.  It doesn't get any better.

My wife Kathryn and brother-in-law Doug roasting skewered Peeps over the Chimenia.

Sister-in-law Susan roasts a bunny.
EASTER: Early April Sunday, Time to Eat Rabbit 

Peeps are best when cooked to perfection.

Deep Cut

Just a couple of photos to show the deepest section of the excavation. 

Nick's car on the road above the deepest part of the cut.

OK, so I'm not particularly tall but most of me is below the level of the roots of the tree near the edge of the cut.

WASPS

Since the tractor was out of commission due to a broken hose, I decided to spend the afternoon working on the shed.  The shed is complete in that it is in use - it's full of stuff already.  It still needs some cosmetic finish work - in particular, siding and trim molding.  Before I could get going, however, I realized that some wasps had moved into the shed (not Espiscopalians but the six legged, arthropod kind).  There are chemicals you can buy to spray on bugs to kill them but I don't like to use them because I don't like to inhale and smell them.  I prefer a pneumatic solution - I suck them up with a shop vac.  It's green and it works great.

One of the bugs shortly before it was vacuumed.

The bug sucker

The B21 Blows a Hose

Our Kubota B21 tractor has been running really well so far this spring.  It has enabled us to move a lot of dirt - and not just move it.  We have been using the dirt we remove from the build site to develop flat ares at several locations on the property.  The B21 can do it all - on some days we can pick up, transport, dump, grade, and compact as much a 30 tons of dirt a day - all with our little B21 tractor.  Today, however, I think the B21 needed a break - so it broke.  I was about to pick up and transport on more bucketful of dirt before stopping for lunch when one of the hydraulic hoses sprung a leak.  It wasn't just s little leak- the hose running from the pump to the control valve next to the operator burst.  The result was a spray of hydraulic oil all over me as well as the tractor.  And since it was the pump side, the spray didn't stop until I shut off the engine.  It took only a few seconds to shut it down but in that brief amount of time I managed to get a pretty good shower of oil.  Despite the mess and the inconvenience, this is a rather minor breakdown.  Hydraulic hoses are easily replaced.

Everything you see here is wet with hydraulic oil. 

It sprayed all the way to the front bucket.

My shoe - coated with mud made with oil.