The long awaited arrival has happened. Mr. Dometastic finally gets to fulfill his childhood dreams of sandbox glory. Without any further delay here is a photo of our Case 880B Excavator!
There have been many stumbling blocks along the way but we were able to break ground. Unfortunately it has been a week and we aren't much farther than this photo.
We managed to get the track fixed and it looks great. Although, now that it looks so good the other side that used to be the good side looks like it needs help. Its the snowballing effect that happens when you decide to fix or renovate something that is in pretty bad shape. The more you fix, the worse the parts you were planning to leave look!
We had additional problems besides the loose track. We were excited to find out the shipping company had time to ship it to us right away after the track was fixed. The guy went to drive it up the tiny 1 foot incline to get onto the flat bed and a main hydraulic drive line blew. It died on the shipping companies trailer and emptied its main tank of fluid onto the ground. Yep, 40 gallons of it. So off it went in the wrong direction to the shipping companies yard so they could drag it off the flat bed. We managed to find a guy to fix it within a week and once again scheduled its delivery. All seemed well but I made a fatal mistake while watching them unload it. I joked with Mr. Dometastic over text message. I should never have written that it had arrived but just needed to make it:
Welllllll...... We almost made it to number 3. The delivery guy drove it off the main road; down the access road; made the turn through the stone wall and had to go over a big but flatish rock to avoid damaging our neighbors tree roots. Our neighbor was very specific about protecting his tree roots. It blew another main hose with the back end of the machine still about 2 feet on our neighbors property! Once again it dumped all its fluid and died blocking the only way out of the property. I bet you can all guess where my car was during this! All we needed was 10 feet further to let us use the only opening to the property. As for the 40 gallons of nasty hydraulic fluid draining onto the ground... Lucky for us I had stashed a big 40 gallon galvanized tub (and other smaller buckets) in the barn. We avoided a giant spill right onto our neighbors road but I ran around like a crazy woman getting the containers!
The comedy of errors continues when Mr. Dometastic decided to replace the hose himself. It is so thick and stiff that it is almost impossible to bend it into position and thread the fitting. At least for us it is impossible evidenced by the hour long wrestling match before admitting defeat.
We were able to call a friend over and he made us look dumb by attaching it by himself in 5 minutes. We are clearly behind the learning curve in big machinery.
Hose replaced we fired it up and started digging. Unfortunately, it sprung yet another leak in another hose. Hopefully this time it won't empty the whole tank of fluid when we replace it and we can finally get some real work done before it needs another fix. Right now we have spent more time fixing it than using it.
While Mr. Dometastic has been dealing with the excavator I have been keeping busy with our gigantic pile of fire wood. Stacking and stacking and stacking the great wall o' wood. I am no where near done and have no need for a gym.
Don't buy it? Ok, here is the real picture but I do have an urge to attach 2 volleyballs to the bucket and paint little black circles so it can be just like the steam shovel. Mr. Dometastic isn't impressed with my idea. Be honest with yourself. If you had an old rusty excavator like ours wouldn't you do the same? I can't be the only one!
There have been many stumbling blocks along the way but we were able to break ground. Unfortunately it has been a week and we aren't much farther than this photo.
We managed to get the track fixed and it looks great. Although, now that it looks so good the other side that used to be the good side looks like it needs help. Its the snowballing effect that happens when you decide to fix or renovate something that is in pretty bad shape. The more you fix, the worse the parts you were planning to leave look!
We had additional problems besides the loose track. We were excited to find out the shipping company had time to ship it to us right away after the track was fixed. The guy went to drive it up the tiny 1 foot incline to get onto the flat bed and a main hydraulic drive line blew. It died on the shipping companies trailer and emptied its main tank of fluid onto the ground. Yep, 40 gallons of it. So off it went in the wrong direction to the shipping companies yard so they could drag it off the flat bed. We managed to find a guy to fix it within a week and once again scheduled its delivery. All seemed well but I made a fatal mistake while watching them unload it. I joked with Mr. Dometastic over text message. I should never have written that it had arrived but just needed to make it:
- Off the main road
- Off the access dirt road that belongs to our neighbor
- Through the barway in the stone wall to our property.
Welllllll...... We almost made it to number 3. The delivery guy drove it off the main road; down the access road; made the turn through the stone wall and had to go over a big but flatish rock to avoid damaging our neighbors tree roots. Our neighbor was very specific about protecting his tree roots. It blew another main hose with the back end of the machine still about 2 feet on our neighbors property! Once again it dumped all its fluid and died blocking the only way out of the property. I bet you can all guess where my car was during this! All we needed was 10 feet further to let us use the only opening to the property. As for the 40 gallons of nasty hydraulic fluid draining onto the ground... Lucky for us I had stashed a big 40 gallon galvanized tub (and other smaller buckets) in the barn. We avoided a giant spill right onto our neighbors road but I ran around like a crazy woman getting the containers!
The comedy of errors continues when Mr. Dometastic decided to replace the hose himself. It is so thick and stiff that it is almost impossible to bend it into position and thread the fitting. At least for us it is impossible evidenced by the hour long wrestling match before admitting defeat.
We were able to call a friend over and he made us look dumb by attaching it by himself in 5 minutes. We are clearly behind the learning curve in big machinery.
Hose replaced we fired it up and started digging. Unfortunately, it sprung yet another leak in another hose. Hopefully this time it won't empty the whole tank of fluid when we replace it and we can finally get some real work done before it needs another fix. Right now we have spent more time fixing it than using it.
While Mr. Dometastic has been dealing with the excavator I have been keeping busy with our gigantic pile of fire wood. Stacking and stacking and stacking the great wall o' wood. I am no where near done and have no need for a gym.
Wow! Sorry for the comedy of errors! Hopefully things are going in the right direction and will go more smoothly now. That is an amazing lot of wood - you have worked so hard!
ReplyDeleteI hope so too. We will know more in about a week.
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