All I want for Christmas is a.... Bobcat!!!

Daniel tells me a picture paints a thousand words... so for those of you who don't want to read my ramblings, skip ahead - I like typing the thousand words ;)

I never knew how cool bobcats were.  Today was the final step in almost 3 weeks of trying to slash our block and pull out stumps.

Last month family came to help cut down about 10 trees which were in the house pad area.  It took half a day of cutting them down, and another half day of cutting off branches and building the worlds biggest bonfire pile - which we're not game to light until we get water onsite.

Fast forward and we find a local man who has a bobcat and does slashing and digging out of tree roots.  Perfect!  (funny enough I got his number from a sign nailed to a tree at a local cross road)

His first visit he stayed for 5 hours.  About 4 hours was spent slashing the block... it was a bit boggy from recent rain, but he pressed on until he hit a tree stump and the slasher seized up.  Then he moved onto digging out tree stumps.  Turns out it would have been better for us to not cut down the tress and just have him push them over!  But where's the fun in that?  Our men would have missed a day of blood, sweat, and well... there weren't any tears.  I think it's good to say 'we did that', even if we did it a harder way.  Generations ago they would have had to use a hand saw!  We still would have had to cut up the trunks, but what took several hours of chainsawing, would have been done in less than an hour by the bobcat.  The first 2 small stumps came out like knife cutting through butter.  Easy!  We'll be done in no time!  Then there was the 3rd stump.  It was a stubborn one.  After about half an hour of digging, the bucket on the bobcat cracked and could no longer be used.  In fact when he put it back on the truck it fell apart in two pieces!  Yikes... do we have to pay for repairs?  No... phew!  He tried to push them over with the larger bucket, but no success there either.  These stumps won't be pushed over, they need to be dug out.

Two weeks later, bucket welded up, we meet him again at the block for take 2 of stump removal.  The kids were with me this time and even though we were pushing it to get to school on time, I thought it would be fun to stay a few minutes longer for them to see the action.  15 mins later, the bucket broke again in a different place!  This stump does not want to meet it's fate... our bonfire pile.

So yesterday (it was 'today' when I began the post), 3rd time lucky, the bobcat was back with all the bucket bits welded firmly back together, freshly painted and looking ready for business.  Thankfully, the remaining 8 stumps were dug out, holes filled back in, and a couple of piles of rocks moved in 3 hours.  1 hour of that was spent on that first stubborn stump and another like it, and another hour on 6 stumps (rock was closer to the surface so they were easier to get out).  It was a good thing it was quicker today as we were getting cold watching in the light rain.

So now the house pad is all clear and as soon as the builders can get to site, we're ready to build!

Bobcats are fast, they are soooo strong, they can dig, pick up, push over, pull out trees by their roots in one quick move, and they're even heated inside - which  is quite likely warmer than our rental house!

Amazing...  I want a bobcat!

 

Our block, late March 2012

Cutting down the trees

Looking up driveway from road

Looking down driveway from top of block

Slashed house pad - still need to remove stumps

Across house pad from rear boundary

Slashing

The Stubborn Stump!

Tree roots - they crunch when the bobcat cuts through them. 
When you're paying per hour that's the sound you want to hear!

You would never know that stubborn stubborn stump was here

Bobcats are strong!

Last stump bring removed

Adding a tree (whole) to the bonfire pile

Across the bottom slope

Looking down the slope from the house pad

Future site of the kid's tree house :)

Enduring the cold to watch the day's fun - yay for school holidays!

Staying dry in the shelter J built with dad.  J wants to be Bear Grylls when he grows up! 
E would never make it on Survivor.  She's freezing in light rain! 
Neither Bear Grylls or Survivor contestants get milo & cookies to ward off the chill :)

All done...  Let's get building!!!