30 May 2018

Jim Ploof came by after work to eyeball the two Leicester nuggets that will need his largest excavator to remove.  He “thinks” he “maybe” can roll them out of the hole… but there’s no way he could ever pick them up.  Jim plans to make his rolling rock attempt the weekend of 9 – 10 June.  Probably should get some Rolling Rock to celebrate / commiserate with…  After some discussion, Chree and I agreed on a lovely spot close, but not too close, to the barn where Jim can deposit those rocks… which we decided will become a grandkid climbing attraction.  After clearing out the few saplings in the designated spot, called Longridge and asked them to reschedule the barn concrete work from the third to the fourth week in June.  The lake temperature already is up to 73°!

28 May 2018

Having returned from our 46^th wedding anniversary vacation to Niagara Falls, the richer by nine cases of wine procured from the Lake Seneca, NY region, set to work leveling the barn-build site.  Or so I thought…  First mission was to remove the last of the rocks whose noses were protruding into the plane of the barn foundation.  Started digging… and digging… and digging… and digging, eventually uncovering an 11 ton monster measuring 9′3″ x 5′3″ x 3′.  Gaaak!!!!

Next to it sat its shorter but dumpier sister, also tipping the scales at 11 tons.  Double gaaak!!!!  Would you believe that no more than one square foot of either rock was showing at ground level?  How long do you think the Seneca Lake wine procurement is going to last?

 

17 May 2018

Moved the stump that James dug out over to the area by our garden that is bonfire central.  Actually, kind of dragged the stump over there as the Kubota couldn’t quite lift it all the way off the ground.  As well, tried to move the boulder with the forks (this was before I calculated the rock’s weight) and, as you might imagine, that was a non-starter.  Did manage to roll the rock out of the way with the backhoe.

 

8 May 2018

Whilst I was away for the annual EAGLE FORD vernal voyage from Chesapeake, VA to North Kingston, RI (a trip that was extra exciting this year – but that’s another story), James Ploof came over with his father’s mini-excavator and made short work of extracting the final stump and associated boulder from the barn-build site.  The rock measures roughly 5′ x 2′ x 2′3″, which equates to a paltry 3,375 pounds… which may explain why I couldn’t get it out with the Kubota.

6 May 2018

While taking Shlomo for his morning constitutional, stopped to say hello to Mike and Pikey Many, father and son neighbors who formerly were in the roofing business together.  They put the standing seam metal roof on the woodshed back in September 2011, but soon thereafter Mike retired and Pikey moved on to a comfy indoor job.  Even so, and without too much unseemly begging on my part, they agreed to go back into business when the barn needs its new metal roof.  Using the old Sunday mid-afternoon when everybody is home ploy, finally got hold of Jim Ploof directly.  He will come with his mini-excavator on Monday or Tuesday this coming week to pull the recalcitrant stump and associated boulder. 

5 May 2018

Shlomo, the Kubota, and I spent the day helping Perry put in a drainage system along the front of his house where he has been getting water in through his foundation.  Shlomo had a good play date with Lizzie… and found a mud puddle in which he enjoyed rolling.  Very bad, very dirty doggie!  I had a good play date with the Kubota, obviously, because any day operating a backhoe has got to be about perfect.  Leaving Perry’s, we dropped the Kubota off at Champlain Valley Equipment for its 400 hour $300 oil change, plus a short list of fixes and adjustments that should drive the cost much, much higher.  Just doing our best here to keep the local economy humming along.

4 May 2018

While running errands this morning, stopped by Champlain Valley Equipment to order some work to be done on the Kubota while I’m out of town next week.  Who should I meet there but Toby Rheaume.  “Doug”, Toby says, “Jim Ploof and I were talking this morning and he was wondering if his Yanmar mini-excavator will be big enough to pull that stump of yours.  I told him I thought it would be.”  (Wait for the chorus of It’s a Small World After All.)

3 May 2018

Just call me a glutton for punishment.  Tried once again to extract the remaining stump at the barn build site.  This time I put a (very strong) chain around the stump, hooked it to the Tacoma, engaged the 4WD, put a monster strain on the chain, and then went into attack mode with the Kubota.  That stump wouldn’t even wiggle a tiny bit!  So gave up (again) on that idea and instead dug the trench from the main power panel to where the west wall of the barn will be situated.  A conduit will go into that trench for the barn power line.  Only one not-so-small obstacle: the stone wall that the power line must go under.  Now, with all that beautiful sand underlying the barn build site, you’d thing hand chopping a 2″ hole under the wall would be a piece of cake.  Have you ever met Mr. Murphy?  The sand apparently stops just short of the wall, ‘cause underlying the wall is typical Leicester hardpan gravel, of the miserable to dig variety.  One of these weeks, when I get my strength back, I’ll finish that little hole.