Big Machines Doing Big Work

The past few months have seen big change at the Moore homestead. We've had two bulldozers, two backhoes (one with a jackhammer attached to it), and a dump truck visit the property. We've installed a water line and "frost free hydrant", a septic tank, cleared a large number of unwanted trees and stumps, dug lateral lines for the septic system, and had the bed of our driveway laid.

The first bulldozer pulled up the tree stumps that I left behind after thinning out the trees. Not only did he get the stumps, but he went ahead and pulled up the rest of the trees that I had planned to cut down. It is such a powerful machine that it uprooted the same amount of trees in two hours that I had cut down in two or three months! I couldn't help laughing to myself watching so much work being done in so little time.

The first backhoe was a rental that Dad and I used to dig a water service line and the lateral lines for our septic system. Now that the water line is installed, we have our first utility fully installed and functional on the property.

We also dug a hole for the septic tank with the backhoe, but we hit bedrock at about 2 feet, so we hired a jackhammer operator to come out with his "Hammer Hoe" to break the rock. I debated on renting an 80 lb jackhammer, but the Hammer Hoe was much more effective at 1350 lb! It was fun to watch him get through all that rock in a matter of hours, instead of days. Once he was done, the septic tank was installed and backfilled.

The dump truck delivered shale to build the roadbed for our driveway. He brought in three 12 yard loads of  shale and the second bulldozer came out to level and pack the shale. The dozer was also useful to pull the dump truck out of the mud on our property ... twice! Good thing this roadbed is being built, so hopefully no one will get stuck again.

We've still got to install the lateral lines, then cover them up, and put gravel over our shale roadbed. Little by little, it's starting to come together.