Bob LaPorte arrived just after 7:00 with his Komatsu PC75R excavator. Tammy Walsh, with her Kubota B3200 loader / backhoe, arrived somewhat later, at nearly the same time as Alverta, who came down to watch the circus. Bob’s first mission was to dig out the triple maple stump alongside the driveway. He went about halfway to China before he could get that beast out of the ground. Ask me later how we’re going to move it to a burn pile. Bob then tackled the red oak stump that I had cut close to the ground so that the crane could get into position for hoisting the underground storage area roof. That stump came out fairly easily. While this was going on Tammy was using her machine to haul the downed trees off the house site so that the area is clear of us to dig up more stones and fill later this week. She will be taking those trees for firewood. Bob then started grading the area from the RV parking spot to the shed. Right under where I had framed the underground roof there was a small rock, about a foot square, that I couldn’t get out with a shovel, so the top of that rock became the grade level for the underground roof frame. Bob dug and dug, then dug some more, before hauling out of the ground a 4′ by 4½′ by 5′ monster, approximate weight 6¾ tons. Bob’s excavator can only pick up about four tons, so we lassoed the monster with three logging chains (breaking two of them in the ensuing struggle) and he dragged the rock down the hill to become the first part of the car turnaround area retaining wall. That rock had four good faces. Do you think we could get any of them facing north or on top? Right first time! After a half hour of poking and prodding we said it is where it is and we’ll just have to deal with that later. Where it was was 30″ from the shed foundation wall. We tried four times before we got the rocks we put in that 30″ gap to not fall down when we put the next rock on top. We had similar “fun” with many of the other rock placements. By the end of the day I was pretty well whipped and we had the first course of rocks laid for about half the wall… and the supply of “good” rocks was dwindling rapidly. Had to take a swim to get enough dirt off so I could take a shower. At various times during the day Dan, Marty, Merry, and Fran Viko stopped by to view our endeavors and lend their moral support.
