Moving Dirt - Part 2

We finished the initial phase of moving the dirt this week and now we have an immense dirt pile covering a wide area with trees on both sides. Now the question we need to answer is, what exactly are we going to do with all that dirt?

I decided my first task was to forge some kind of road or track over the top of the pile so I could get the tractor to the far side which had now become inaccessible. Fortunately the dirt has been placed into a low lying area of land, so the nearside of the pile is almost level with the existing ground. This meant I was able to reverse the tractor onto the pile without too much difficulty. In this position I was able to use the back-hoe to move rocks and somewhat level the dirt behind the tractor. After one small section was clear, I slowly reversed the tractor further onto the pile began working on the next area to extend my track one section at a time.

After a while I was nearing the far side of the pile where the dirt sloped down towards the ground. By this time I just wanted to make it to the other side, so I probably didn't spend as much time leveling the dirt as I could have, and instead I rolled the tractor down the sloping edge of the pile and declared success.

In my new position I was able to look back at and admire the track across the pile that I'd just created. It looked good, except for one thing. The slope that I'd just come down looked rather steep and muddy from this angle.

The tractor and I were stranded. After an attempt to drive back up onto the pile from the far side, my suspicion was confirmed. The slope that the tractor had so easily rolled down was far too steep, loose, wet, slippery, and muddy to drive back up. The tractor and I were officially stranded on the wrong side of a massive dirt pile with no escape route.

Some deep tire ruts had now developed in the slope from my failed attempts to get back onto the dirt pile. In an effort to improve a worsening situation, I spent some time moving more dirt onto the slippery slope, to fill in the ruts and reduce the steepness. This achieved limited success as the dirt was so wet and muddy it was turning into a swamp around me.

Eventually I decided that rocks where the answer to my problem. So next I spent some time placing rocks into the muddy tire ruts on the slope. This was to provide something more solid and less slippery for the tires to grip onto. My first attempt at driving on the rock tracks had limited success, but it was an improvement on my prior attempts, so I continued adding more, bigger, rocks.

Finally, with all four wheels spinning and the engine at full throttle I was able to use the now embedded rocks to slip-slide my way up the slope and back onto the pile, phew! With the tractor now back on the pile, I began to find myself wondering if I'd be able to do that again... but I quickly dismissed that idea and decided that I should call it a day.

I drove across the mud-road, off the pile, and headed towards the house.

Tire Ruts on the Mud Road.

Post Transformation

This past weekend, I finally tackled another project that has long been on our "to do" list: cleaning rust off the deck supports and re-painting them with RustOleum. Dan's mom helped us get started on the project during their recent visit and I thought it best to finish the task before we moved on to other things. This video shows the transformation of the posts from unbelievably rusty to clean and freshly painted.

Moving Dirt

I used to think that we just couldn't get enough dirt, but now I'm beginning to change my mind.

We've started moving a huge mountain of dirt from our neighbors house across the road to ours. So far we've spend about 3 hours loading a truck one one side of the road, driving across the road, dumping the load, and then going back for more. I'm guessing we managed about 3 or 4 truck loads per hour. And we're only about 1/3 of the way through the pile.

Loading.

Unloading.

I know what you might be wondering... what are we going to do with all that dirt?

Sneaky Rabbits!

The pesky rabbit problem continues. And they are sneaky too. I chased this one away twice before it returned for a third time when I wasn't looking.

Erin will not be happy when she sees this.

Pesky Rabbits!

For some reason, this spring has seen a increased amount of rabbit activity. We first noticed parts of the front lawn torn up where they have are trying to start new burrows, and I managed to snap the shot above on my camera phone while mowing the grass! Well, this morning I looked out of the front windows to see a strange clump of grass in an odd place. By looking through the binoculars I was able to identify a fluffy gray clump of grass and fur, those damn rabbits! On closer inspection, sure enough it was the start of a new burrow, only about 6 inches deep, with a big clump of dry grass and rabbit fur stuffed in the top, ready for nesting, no doubt. I found a nice big rock and shoved it over the hole while cursing the damn rabbits.

The problems continue. This evening I got home and started a work-out session on the Elliptical trainer that sits in front of a glass sliding door at the back of the house. Well, 24 minutes through my session, I'm looking out the window and guess what I see? A pesky rabbit hops across in front of the window from left to right! I sigh and continue my workout. A couple of minutes later I see the rabbit again, this time it's hopping the other direction, from right to left. I'm surprised and after another minute or so of deliberation, I hit the pause button and open the door. I step outside in the direction the rabbit went, guess what I see? There's a rabbit hopping straight towards me. He sees me and stops. I do the same. Then he turns and starts hopping away. I give chase towards the woods, and then around the yard. I'm almost within reach, and then it diverts into the woods. Argg.

I'm out of breath walking back towards the house, and guess what I see?! You guessed it. There's a rabbit hopping across the driveway past the garage doors. This time I don't chase, just keep walking and it casually hops past the flower bed, across the grass, and into the woods. Next I go and check the burrow from the morning, and sure enough, there's been fresh digging around the rock. I see another rabbit near the end of the driveway, but it's too far away to chase, so I go back inside and finish my work-out.

With the work-out complete, I step out the sliding glass door again and start walking toward the flower bed, and guess what I see? A rabbit hops out of the flowerbed and onto the grass in front of me! And then, not one, but two more rabbits jump out beside the first. Arrgg! I stare at them as they stare at me, and I'm wondering what I might do next. I don't have time to formulate a plan. One by one, they cross to the other end of the flower bed and head back toward the woods, again.

I think we might have a rabbit problem.