Unfortunately our excavator purchase seems to have NOT been the best decision. It is fixed and running better than before with new filters and an oil change (not to mention the 3 new hydraulic hoses) but it has turned out to be SLOW and not able to dig out the stumps in the below photo.
The latest theory is the hydraulics that give the bucket digging power are leaking when it has to really work and letting the fluid leak around the piston instead of giving it full power. What this means is it operates like a geriatric WWF wrestler.
The excavator just STOPS when it hits a 4 inch tree root so our stumps are its downfall. It runs and functions like an excavator until the going gets hard and then it just doesn't move. We could live with more hoses going in the future but it is unfortunately not nearly as powerful of a machine as it should be. We now need to make a decision. Try to sell, trade in or donate it. We have given up on the scrap route for now since they don't give you much if you bring it to them whole. It is still usable "as is" for someone who needs to load dump trucks with loose piles of fill but we think its days as a powerful digger are gone. The work to replace the seals is too costly in man hours for us to consider it.
We are still waiting for our engineered plans. I feel like I should just have a button on the keyboard that types that statement. This engineering phase continues to be a stumbling block. The new completion date is the beginning of August. We hope that this really will be it but we haven't seen anything from them yet. We had a nice conference call with Cirrus Structural to go over some options to solve how to put our garage/basement in under the dome. Now we just sit and wait to see what they come up with and hope we can afford their suggestions.
While we wait to get our finalized construction documents we have several projects underway. We have borrowed a small tractor for the summer and have been busy using the york rake to pull out brush and prickers. We now can see our lovely stone walls!
They were previously hidden by 20-30 feet of prickers and vines. This commonly happens to hay fields. Farmers slowly over the decades of haying a field get farther and farther away from the walls because they don't want to bale the brush. Over many decades the inches add up and the fields shrink. It has taken blood, sweat and a nasty case of chronic poison ivy to win the battle!
Mr. Dometastic has resided the old existing barn. It now looks so much better!
He has also split the rest of the wood that now needs to be stacked on the Great Wall O'Wood.
The other project that moved forward is our silt fence construction. After much deliberating we rented a ditch witch for half a day to dig the 500 foot 6"x6" trench needed to bury the silt fence. It was an old heavy trencher that kept throwing its chain off but it was much faster than trying to do it with the bucket on the little tractor. I then spent many hours putting up what felt like the longest silt fence in history. Maybe the 90 degree temps with high humidity were to blame. It goes all the way to the far treeline where the blue tarp is!
Lastly, we applied for both our zoning permit and our building permit for the barn. This will allow us to start the driveway, utilities, well and the barn.
Mr. Dometastic is sad. He did not have a glorious big boy sand box experience.
The latest theory is the hydraulics that give the bucket digging power are leaking when it has to really work and letting the fluid leak around the piston instead of giving it full power. What this means is it operates like a geriatric WWF wrestler.
I googled "geriatric wrestler" and found this image of Mae Young an actual wrestler!
The excavator just STOPS when it hits a 4 inch tree root so our stumps are its downfall. It runs and functions like an excavator until the going gets hard and then it just doesn't move. We could live with more hoses going in the future but it is unfortunately not nearly as powerful of a machine as it should be. We now need to make a decision. Try to sell, trade in or donate it. We have given up on the scrap route for now since they don't give you much if you bring it to them whole. It is still usable "as is" for someone who needs to load dump trucks with loose piles of fill but we think its days as a powerful digger are gone. The work to replace the seals is too costly in man hours for us to consider it.
We are still waiting for our engineered plans. I feel like I should just have a button on the keyboard that types that statement. This engineering phase continues to be a stumbling block. The new completion date is the beginning of August. We hope that this really will be it but we haven't seen anything from them yet. We had a nice conference call with Cirrus Structural to go over some options to solve how to put our garage/basement in under the dome. Now we just sit and wait to see what they come up with and hope we can afford their suggestions.
While we wait to get our finalized construction documents we have several projects underway. We have borrowed a small tractor for the summer and have been busy using the york rake to pull out brush and prickers. We now can see our lovely stone walls!
Mr. Dometastic has resided the old existing barn. It now looks so much better!
He has also split the rest of the wood that now needs to be stacked on the Great Wall O'Wood.
The other project that moved forward is our silt fence construction. After much deliberating we rented a ditch witch for half a day to dig the 500 foot 6"x6" trench needed to bury the silt fence. It was an old heavy trencher that kept throwing its chain off but it was much faster than trying to do it with the bucket on the little tractor. I then spent many hours putting up what felt like the longest silt fence in history. Maybe the 90 degree temps with high humidity were to blame. It goes all the way to the far treeline where the blue tarp is!
Lastly, we applied for both our zoning permit and our building permit for the barn. This will allow us to start the driveway, utilities, well and the barn.
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