Deepti has found her true calling

We hired an excavator last weekend – in an attempt to start some serious earthworks – take the tree stumps out, and dig the big pits for the rainwater tanks and second soakwell. (The surveyor hasn’t turned up yet – something about getting bitten by a bee, or not finding the real setout point....) When Christian decided to hire the excavator, I thought – now why do you want to spend all this hire fee for a big machine – we only need a little bobcat or dingo. Obviously, my opinion was not considered.

Geez that was lucky!

I love this machine! What 3 men (and women=Anne + me) and a few shovels did in one full day of work two weeks ago, I managed to do with the excavator in just a few minutes. Of course it took a while to get used to the controls, but by the end of the Saturday, I was totally rockin’ it! Poor Christian didn’t really get his turn except for when he snuck out to site first thing Sunday morning to get some excavator-action before I turned up and hogged it again!

It really is an addictive piece of equipment. It’s a mini excavator, and works on a skid-steer – which is awesome – I have never driven a skid-steer before. It has a safety lock, which activates when you lift an arm to get out of the cabin. It’s a strong unit (and heavy – weight about 1.5 to 2 tonnes with its trailer), it has counterweights for balance and is small enough to work well in tight situations.

We have 5 tree stumps on site – and an existing tree with more than a few mega-roots. We dug around 4 of the stumps and cut the big roots with a chainsaw. The smaller stumps came out smooth like butter, but the bigger ones had to be pulled out with some super-smart and highly skilled excavator action by yours truly!

I spent most of the next day reading up on excavator operations, angles of digging, and all sorts of other cool stuff. I get the feeling this project for me is going to be all about power tools since I can’t boast much physical prowess! Power Tools here I come!