Heavy Equipment arrives!! (31 July 2005)

Today was the day I learned how to operate industrial machinery that weights more than 1 kg!! With Matt's help, we hired a mini-excavator from Kennards for the day, and essentially bulldozed the side garden. We used a dumpy level to work out the heights, and created the two 'levels' of the entertainment area (See diagram of project below)

The day was pretty busy, and it took a bit of practice to figure out how to drive 1.5 tonnes of equipment over uneven terrain without putting myself nor my house at risk. By the end of the day, the two levels were ready for the next phase!


There once was a fountain... and then it was no more!

Half way through building the 'lower level' (towards the front of this photo)


Tips on using this equipment:

• I used the excavator on the lowest 'throttle setting' possible for the first hour or so - that way it made it harder to run into the house as I learned how to drive it
• As I became more familiar with it, I decided to use it at the end of the day to re-shape another part of the (back) garden. That was a Big Mistake!! All I managed to do was get distracted from the main project, and in the process wreck the lawn in the back garden (My wife Ines was certainly not impressed with that!)
• The earth around my home is very heavy clay, which meant it was HARD breaking it up. It was good that we got the excavator with the optional 'clay bucket', which has teeth (like a fork) to dig into the ground.