6 May 2014

Dolores drank another 11 gallons of propane again today.  Temps still are getting down into the 30’s at night, so the furnace has been running a lot.  Jimmy arrived at 0730 and sent three large dump truck loads of stumps off to the landfill.  Tammy Walsh, Nathan Clert (Tammy’s nephew and assistant rock wall builder), and Mary Stockwell (no relation, but also a hard-working builder with rocks) all arrived just after 8.  The four of us proceeded to tackle the sauna building site retaining wall, with occasional help from Jimmy, who delivered and set several multi-ton rocks that were way beyond the Kubota’s capacity.  Knowing our relative abilities, Tammy operated the tractor all day while I helped with the manual labor side of things.  Sean arrived late morning and he, Jimmy, and I took a look at the accuracy of the nail I put in the hemlock by the car turnaround area ages ago, which theoretically represented the top of the  house cellar concrete walls.  After a fair bit of deliberation, we decided that the nail (and thus the house) was 10 inches too low.  Adjustment made, Jimmy went back to making big holes in the ground and even bigger piles of dirt.  By 4 o’clock (when Tammy and crew had to leave) about ⅞ of the sauna building retaining wall was built.  I then took over the reins of the tractor to remove excess dirt from the site.  Was just finishing up that work shortly before 6 when I got just a little too close to the soft bank I was working near… and the Kubota came within a whisker of rolling over, which would have done terrible things to (1) the tractor, (2) the wood walkway and halfway bench, (3) Fern Lake, and (4) my marriage.  Tried to extricate the tractor using the backhoe boom… but just made things worse and worse and worse.  On the brink of total disaster, left “I’ve got an emergency and I need you back here right now” voicemails with Sean and every number I could find for Jimmy.  Sean called back in short order, recommending that I secure the Kubota to a big tree, which I did using my biggest logging chain and come-along. Jimmy sent me a text message saying he was on his way.  He arrived, driving his front end loader (needed for tomorrow’s agenda) at 6:45.  We walked down to the scene of the crime, whereupon he said, “Would you mind if I try something?”  To which I replied, “Not at all, but be VERY careful!” Whereupon Jimmy (using the backhoe controls) and I (keeping tension on the logging chain with the come-along and operating (by hand) the foot pedal that makes the tractor go in reverse, slowly pulled / drove the tractor back up onto level ground.  PFM on Jimmy’s part; the guy is an absolute wizard!!!! James arrived just as we declared mission accomplished.  Right after Jimmy and James left at 7 (note the arrival / departure time differential!), Sean and Luther Corcoran (Sean’s other foreman) arrived. With the panic now abated, we three adjourned to Dolores for a liquid dinner.