It has been a busy month!  After doing 12hrs of work with the excavator, it broke a track and rested here for a week before we were able to get a repair crew up. They took out two links (with a grinder, welder and a 50,000 psi punch and all was well.

These are before and after photos of the area in front of the garage and shop.  While we loved the 45 year old 60′ fir (will be used as firewood and mulch) we wanted more room to park and turn around, and I wanted a bit more room and a retaining wall beside the shop.

The stump and trunk of the tree can be seen in the background.  A friend brought over his diesel truck and pulled it down with no problem.  It is now cut up into 16″ lengths, ready for splitting.

All of this will be cleaned up, leveled and pressure washed in July.

This will be a gate, and a retaining wall on the right.  The dirt ramp to the upper area was also moved back a few feet.  Eventually, I will build stone retaining walls on either side.  Eventually.

We had the excavator pull down this hill of dirt that had been moved off the building site 4 years ago as it was hard to access with the bobcat.  2nd photo shows it pulled down and accessible.

Also had the excavator pull forward the crushed rock to make it easier to access with the Bobcat. The dead tree is being cut up for firewood.

We had to build a new road for the excavator so it could pound in holes for the fence poles.  I will cover it in dirt and it will become some valuable level ground that will go back to nature in the years ahead.  July will see cross supports on the end posts, and after the gates and fences near the house are done, the deer fence will hopefully be erected.  On va voir.

The garden is doing well, and the bees love the aliums and the irises.

Still working on cabinet doors. The oiled ones are ready to install and the ones on the right (uppers) are ready to oil.

Next update will be in very late June.

The fruit trees burst into white blossoms during the first week of May, like this pear orchard near us.  The snowpack in the mountains is some 200% of normal, and so there is again a fair bit of flooding in the lowest parts of the valley.  As I write this, the forecast is for 28 to 30 degree sunny weather for the next week so there will be a lot of melting and run off.

The garden, and the Japanese Maple, survived the winter well.

A friend thought our car was so dirty (we usually wash it once a month), he offered to detail it.  Did an amazing job!  I had forgotten the paint had metal flakes.

The big news is that our neighbor brought up his excavator  (with a young woman from Tokyo for scale) for two days to help me with a great many projects – removing stumps, reshaping the hillside, bringing down a few trees, digging out the parking area, making post holes in dirt and rock, moving large rocks, and pulling down a towering pile of topsoil.  All this in 12 hours of working.   An amazing machine and an amazing guy, and likely the hardest-working person I have ever met.  A chef from Austria who owned a couple of restaurants in Calgary, he decided 10 years ago to start a winery.  After  years shaping and terracing the land, he planted 2 years ago five types of grapes on 5 acres.   We have helped him a few times with pruning and staking the vines.

Shaping a cut in the side of the driveway.  I will drop in some dirt in the lower part in the weeks ahead.

This is the easy way to fell a tree – just push it over.  A beautiful fir, but had to go in order to enlarge the parking/turn around area in front of the garage.  Will be used for firewood and mulch.

Placing rocks – He can grab, manipulate and place large rocks with ease.

This is the hammer used to break rock and make post holes – works like a charm, and weighs a few tons.

Mother and Daughter

I have excavator envy

We were 20 minutes from completion when the track broke, luckily not right in front of the garage.  Should be able to get it fixed by the middle of the week.

Shall have updates and photos on all that we did with the excavator at the end of the month!