Fun at work

[wroughtn_harv]

We had to bring power into the new building. We decided to do it via underground. Electric co-op said the trench had to be at least eight inches wide and three feet deep. The perfect job for Iris and her home made back hoe attachment.

Here's she's cleaning out cave in's from the trench being open for a couple of days.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

the trench

 

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digging

You gotta love Iris. She is so willing and she doesn't mind get down and getting dirty.

 

[cjw]

Sure would like to see that power hammer.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

The power hammer is a Little Giant, fifty pounder, Myers, made in and around about nineteen teens. She is a sweet heart that can hurt you if you cross her. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I don't have a picture of her but I do have one of my favorite little girl impossibly stuck.

 

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and another view

 

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I would never have thought that even I could get a four wheel drive tractor impossibly stuck with only one wheel in trouble.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I don't know if any of you have ever met Miss Lob Lolly. If you have you can understand my situation.

Sunday I moved about a hundred and twenty five yards of surface sand from this area to around the front for for a driveway. As I crossed this swell I'd made I noticed Miss Lob Lolly showing her hand. Just about the time I thought she thought she had me I'd move over a bit and we'd start the dance again in a different place. This was with me driving the fifteen thousand pound Cat 416B.

So yesterday morning I put on the digging bucket that is really too big for Iris and started cleaning the swell. After all Iris weighs just a tad over a third of the Cat and Miss Lob Lolly works on the gravity principle, something very similar to Murphy's law.

As I started to spin a one eighty with a full load in the too big bucket Miss Lob Lolly grabbed the left front wheel and sucked it down faster'n I could drop the bucket. It was kinda sorta a little like doing a one handed hand stand in a bucket of jello.

One tiny bit of a second I was doing a slick one eighty and the next even smaller bit of the very same second I was in a push up position with my hands against the front ROPS of the tractor getting a good look at dirt up close and personal.

Yes. The pucker string was so tight a feather could have severed it with ease. No. My life didn't pass before my eyes. They were closed tight. Probably from the vacuum effect of "OOPS!!"

Motor was still running but the hydraulics weren't powerful enough to disengage from Miss Lob Lolly's squeeze. We had us a situation you might say.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

But only until the Cat became involved /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[wroughtn_harv]

We're on the downhill side on the fence part of the job I've been on up next to the Red River. Yesterday I laid out and dug forty some holes. I got about half of them set. We started with a hundred and sixty five posts.

The digging here is about as easy as can be found. Usually I can just about screw in the auger and then lift up.

I thought some might enjoy a tour of the process.

I use upside down paint and or a claw hammer to mark my holes. When the dirt is loose the paint ain't worth dating, much less getting involved with. That's when a good framing hammer comes in handy.