6.30.2024

Jim did some more work on site grading - scooping up the topsoil and taking it back to our pile in the woods...

Topsoil removed from this swatch...

Starting to fill in the area with the regular dirt from the pile...

Mid-afternoon, Jim left to pick up the trailer...

He wanted to put some planks down just for support for the steel roofing pieces, so he went up into the pavilion attic for some wood...

Strapping them down...

High 82.7/Low 68.5 - nice!

6.29.2024

A rainy day, so good to do some inside work.  Jim worked on putting the other right angle fitting on for the chipper... 

Then he has them attached to the chipper's hoses...

Getting tools and 4Runner ready for the trip to pick up the steel roofing...

High 74.7/Low 46.7 - cool and rainy!

6.28.2024

 Jim bought right angle hydraulic hose fittings to make connecting to the chipper easier.  As they have it now, he can't close the shoot when the hoses are connected.  Not a huge deal, but these will make it easier.  

After lunch, Jim headed out to the U-Haul dealer to make a reservation for a trailer to go pick up our steel siding.  He will pick it up Sunday so that he can just head out Monday morning.  He continues to work on various tasks to get ready for the trip.

It was such a glorious day so Jim wanted to use his little time remaining to work in the dirt.

He wanted to scrape up another swath of topsoil, so he first did some metal detecting (only found a beer can!) and then used the excavator to dig...

High 74.7/Low 46.7 - gorgeous!

6.27.2024

One connection insert in and the other ready to be inserted.  Thankfully, these were a very elegant and easy fix...

Now Jim can attach the cover...

Jim attached the chipper to the Bobcat and we took it up the hill to try it out...

Connecting the hydraulic hoses...

First branch in...

Trying a bigger one...

And an even bigger one!  The self-feed is amazing and it handled 6-7" branches with no problem.  I was able to do it easily because it doesn't beat you up like the other one did pushing branches in.  The Bobcat runs just a bit over idle to operate it, which is amazing too.  We're really happy with it!

Jim got the chipper all put away and wanted to do a little dirt work...

The grading is looking great!

Jim even got a little grass cutting at the end of the day.

High 74.6/Low 56.3 - gorgeous!!

6.26.2024

 Jim unpacked his new hitch today...

Starting to install...

All done!

Mom had an appointment this afternoon, so no more pictures.  The new connection inserts for the chipper came today, so Jim tried one of them to see if it worked - it did, so he'll do the rest tomorrow.  He also did trimming and mowing before doing his workout.

High 80.9/Low 68.3

6.25.2024

Jim had an appointment this morning; once he got home, he got the bucket on the Bobcat and did a little back-dragging of the upper driveway...

After lunch, we headed up to the top of the hill to continue the grading work.  Continuing to spread the pile of dirt over the area he wants to build up...

This area is looking really good...

Moving the remaining topsoil pile back to our stash...

Using the excavator to scrape off the top soil from the last section in this area...

Moving the topsoil back...

Top soil all scraped - and a few rocks pulled out...

Scooping up the rocks...

Spreading dirt over this section to build it up...

Fabulous!

Done with that work for the day, we all took a trip in the Bobcat down to the drop box - Jim's new hitch for the 4Runner came in...

Jim did a little grass cutting at the end of the day.

High 83.6/Low 60.8

6.24.2024

 Jim did a lot of clean up in the shops from his recent work.  Plus, he did a little 4Runner cleanup too in advance of his trip...

His old hitch is completely rusted - it was on our older 4Runner which saw a lot of winter weather.  He has a new one on order that is supposed to come tomorrow.  He took the old one off today...

He had to start and stop mowing a couple times because of rain, but he got the triangle cut today...

High 70.8/Low 63.1 - nice and cool!

6.23.2024

 It was an on and off rainy day today, so Jim attended to some loose ends.  First, cleaning out the steel bandsaw...

Cutting the steel creates so many steel shavings - Jim scoops them into a container that he then recycles...

Jim had only made two wood rack "book ends" to keep his stacked wood from coming off and he wanted to make a few more.  So he got the steel pieces cut...

There was a little bit of a leak in the air compressor connection, so Jim replaced the o-ring...

High 78.5/Low 67.8 - on/off rain