Clearing the Site

R.J., the excavator, wasn't expected until Tuesday; he had another job ahead of mine.  However, his bulldozer developed a leaky oil pan.  Since he has to wait for a part to come in, he decided to start work on my lot using his backhoe.  As noted earlier, I have lots of stumps, all deeply rooted in my rock pile.  In addition, several large brush piles remain from the tree-cutting.

I must have more than a hundred stumps!

R.J.'s backhoe is ready to go to work.

R.J.'s backhoe has a kind of vice grip on the loading bucket.  He bites down on a stump, tightens the vice grip, and then yanks the stump out of the ground, roots and all.  About 4:00 yesterday afternoon R.J. went off to get his dump truck — which is a lot larger than the average dump truck! — and started filling it up.  He uses the vice grip to lift the material over the side of the truck's bed and then drops it in with a noisy thunk!  At 7:45 p.m. he returned for his fourth load.  I expect it will take 10-12 loads to clear the site of debris.

Remember what we say about men
and boys and the size of their toys!

Meanwhile, life goes on at Presque Isle.  Today is the annual arts and crafts festival at the New Lighthouse.  Yesterday afternoon Attila and my neighbor Floyd spent a couple hours marking off the booth spaces.  Both men are engineers, so this work was done with admirable precision.  Nothing is more certain to cause problems at a crafts festival than giving a 10-foot-wide space to an exhibitor with a 12-foot-wide display.  About 40 exhibitors are expected.

Attila (left) and Floyd carefully mark off exhibitor spaces.

The crafts sold at festivals like this are often inventive and nicely made, but not what I would choose for myself.  Do I need 12-unit apartment building for birds?  (Actually, what I really want is a bat house to help control the mosquito population.)  Today I'll keep my wallet hidden and devote myself to the role of "clicker," showing people where to park and counting visitors heads.  It's like ushering in church. •••