(ahem) Yesterday was a VERY BIG DAY
I drove up to the river lot yesterday, rounding the last bend in the road just before noon. A big gray pickup was in my driveway, in front of an even bigger red truck with a flatbed trailer and—whoa Nellie…
Powerful yellow beasts have invaded, roaring and grunting and rooting around my clearing.
Music cue: “Ground Has Been Broken,” with apologies to Cat Stevens and Eleanor Farjeon
Josh (in the little Cat) is smoothing over the craters from whence Mike (in the big Deere) pulled three huge oak stumps out of the ground. The trees themselves were cut down last fall by Lenny next door (not pictured), the results of which are:
a small mountain of fuel for Lenny’s furnace
several brushpiles for winter bonfiring, and
about 180 linear feet of 1.5” oak planks, which will become stair treads, a bartop, benches/windowseats, and whatever else I can think of. My Norwegian ancestors are salivating in their graves…
Back to the present: You have to admire guys who really know what they’re doing. Josh and Mike probably started learning to operate the big machines about the same time they learned to ride a bike, and probably learned both from their dad Doug, whose name is on the trucks. They work efficiently and with focus, pausing the action now and then to confer, then throttling up again.
At one point, Mike points out a couple oak seedlings. “Do you want to save them? Looks like you were mowing around ‘em.”
I had been saving them, but also thought it’s a bit much to ask them to do this Big Job and avoid those Tiny Seedlings, so I half-shrug and say, “Well, it would be nice if they don’t get crushed, but there are more where they came from.” He nods, possibly agreeing to both propositions. At the end of the day both seedlings are still standing, untouched. (Thanks Mike!) We’ll see if they are as lucky when the House comes in on its skateboard….
By 2 o’clock they’re wrapping up: after sculpting a nice 4-cornered hole, Mike has the big digger back on the flatbed and Josh is smoothing out the side closer to the road so the house movers can pull up close and “roll it off”.
I have no idea what ‘roll it off’ looks like, but we’ll find out next week.
… and by 2:45, the Yellow Beasts and their handlers are gone, and peace descends on my little riverbank once more. Within minutes, Lenny’s chickens are emboldened to cruise over for an inspection.
