Happy day!

Today was a day I've been anxiously awaiting since we first began dumping loads of sand into the foundation. The task was immense and nothing short of simply hauling load after load after load into place was going to get the job done. This morning the last load was dumped into the foundation.

Then it was time to stack up some old pallets and arrange some blocking and lay down some sturdy planks. On the other side of the wall I used the bobcat to build up a good sized pile of sand. I put the small tractor in low range and gingerly drove it over the wall.

After more than a week of driving a tractor and a bobcat back and forth in confined spaces hundreds and hundreds of times I'm kind of glad I get to do something else. I celebrated by taking our the small John Deere lawn tractor around our remaining bit of lawn. In fact I enjoyed it so much I mowed it twice. :)

-grampa dan

oops! Spectacular failure.

Murphy's law says if it is possible for something to go wrong it will. After getting the bobcat good and stuck yesterday I proimised myself to be extra careful. This morning dawned bright and clear. We were in the home stretch with the fill. Only one more layer to go. All the dangerous stuff was done.

I grabbed a perfect bucket load of sand and approached the wall to dump the load over. I'm still not sure what happened for I know the front wheels did not bump the wall, nor was I going fast. But as I approached the wall the bobcat suddenly tipped forward. In an instant I found myself face to face (literally) with a concrete wall. There was no time to react and no way to stop my momentum. It was a very short E-ticket ride. The rear wheels lifted and it went over. The bucket hit hard on the ground. One piece of rebar (thankfully bent over hard) hit the windshield and the tempered glass shattered and disappeared in front of me. As quick as that the bumpy ride was over. I shut off the machine and crawled out the tiny space under the machine to survey the damage. Save to the broken windsiheld the machine wasn't even scratched. I had no damage either, thankfully.

Two guys working across the street came running to see if I was OK and tried to tip the machne back on it's wheels (to no avail.) There was only one way to remedy the situation.

I had to get back into the saddle and start up the machine. I gingerly worked the controls to dump the bucket and tip it back on the wheels. It took a good twenty minutes before I stopped shaking but things went smooth for the rest of the day.

It seems when I make a mistake it always is spectacular. I think I've had enough excitement this week.

-grampa dan 

Fifty ways to get a bobcat stuck?

There must be fifty ways to get a bobcat sideways or stuck. So far (in the last few days) I've discovered three already. The first time I eventually got myself out with minimal damage. I called it a learning experience. The second time was a little more serious and required a bit of head scratching and some strong pulls with the pickup to straighten things out enough to get mobile again. Today we were filling in the area betwen the two fileds with sand, basically building a road just a teeny bit wider than the track of the bobcat. THings went pretty well until thr last load... then got a little sideways. This was a lot more serious!

BUt there is always a way out. The excavator dude who was putting in the septic field was only too happy to give me a pull with a sturdy length of chain and we were mobile again.

Life is all about learning and these days I'm learning plenty! :)

-grampa dan