Rough Grade Level

Trees have been cut down and cleared away. Logs have been stock piled. The next steps are stumping, stripping, leveling, and compacting.

Inside Steve's Mind: I got a big machine... should be a piece of cake, right?

Stumped.

Stumped X 100

Reality Check: There's over a hundred stumps. About 20% are really, really, really large.

Another massive stump dislodged. The roots on this bad boy had to be hammered first, then excavated.

Do the stumps really have to be removed? Yes. Leaving the stump after a tree has been cut down leads to issues of safety and liability, potential insect infestation, and possible unwanted growth, not to mention it's unsightly.

The smaller stumps (less than 12" in diameter) become a trip hazard or worse, they can damage equipment and machines.

Throughout the clearing and leveling process, it's important to constantly re-measure and rough mark the building footprint. We want to avoid over-digging.

The larger stumps and roots have its strongest grip when freshly cut. Eventually the roots will dry out thus loosening its stronghold. As it dessicates and decomposes, it disintegrates. If you build a house on top of unremoved stumps and roots, you can be sure there will be settling issues in the future.

Pretty in pink.

Stripping

Of course, this is Steve's favorite stage. He always claps and wolf calls... except it's not that kind of stripping.

The topsoil grades into an underlying layer of darker, loamy, earth. Stripping that top layer requires some careful handling with the excavator. Sometimes it's soft soil and sometimes it scrapes bedrock. Steve lost two of the 'teeth' on the excavator bucket hitting rock.

Stripping away the top soil layer exposing good dark earth.

Piling all the rotten, unwanted, wood scraps.

Steve hammering at rock ledge.

The orange line on the rock indicates where to hammer.

Hammering at bedrock successfully takes a combination of patience and pain killers. Funny thing Steve learned about himself - after working with the hydraulic hammer all day, every day, it created a seriously hyped-up adrenaline charge that takes a hours to calm down. It took him a few days to figure out that it was not a caffeine rush.

Re-measuring grade levels with friggin' laser beams.

Are we there yet?

The orange dots on the ground represent the location of the bottom of the footing height.

Almost...

One machine to hammer rock, another machine to scoop it all up into a big pile.

Hammer. Dig. Pile. Repeat.

Rest and assess.

Steve and Archer standing on rockledge. Here you can see how much rock was hammered away.

We're almost at the desired land surface level, but not quite yet.

What's up next:

• Set up the driveway and anti-tracking pad so large machines have ease of access. And so I can drive onto the site easily.

• Getting a container for the trash wood pile.

• Gravel Delivery for the driveway

• Compacting. Lots and lots of compacting.

• Item 4

That's all for now, folks!

✌🏼Peace