Another large excavation project clearing our acreage. Pics!

May 6, 2017

Starting 7 or 9 years ago and averaging every couple, we've had a portion of the acreage fairly close to the house cleared of tree stumps and rocks, then flattened out.

We began by adding a second driveway which forms a half circle off the larger older one.

Then we had the garden area created.

The entire area of the now 4 year old barn was built.

Then another expansion off to the left of the garden.

This year we began felling trees off to the right side of the house building knowing we wanted to get the excavator back and have him do the same treatment as the whole garden space.

Rip out and pile up stumps, trees, rocks, etc.

Reorganize. Recontour. Bury some. Stack some. Flatten some...

Repeat.

This is the closest I could get to a before n after.

This is taken after 3 loads (14 or 18 cubic yards) were brought in to raise the area.

This is almost the final product.

This new flat spot will be the home of the camper house (carport ish) metal building.

Couple more in progress pics.

There's now a small ramp off the back right corner that a tractor would fit down.

This'll give us access to the whole right side of the house for future wood processing. Also gives us a full tractor driveable path all the way around the house once the ground dries out.

Another big part of this year's work was creating a nice wide long flat spot behind and below the barn. This'll be specifically for tractors, tractor storage, parts, machinery, etc.

The intention is to move the 13 x 20 portable garage down from barn level to the new lower space. Also build another portable garage with the frame we got from my mom. 12 x 20 I believe?

Both of those will eventually be covered with corogated type metal roofing like the barn and house already have.

He had to lay over several trees and do a LOT of material movement for this.

Here's a few odd angled pics of the area. I'll try to get a better view later.

From the house deck.

From the left side. For scale, that shed is 20 feet long but at a distant view.

From below and behind. The portable garage by the barn is the 13 x 20.

Another side view.

We've been considering having a 4WD/ AWD vehicle usable path cut through the forest over past the barn for several years. Really since we got the garden area created and had need for moving materials down there. We'll still be adding size to that and of course adding loam and manure every year so we got the cut done this time. He felled a bunch of small to medium trees to clear the spot.

The operator then used a portion of the old ramp, along with a large amount of material from a hole he dug, along with a full truckload of 1.5 inch max crushed stone, to rebuild the ramp for us.

I find it extremely interesting that a professional excavator can look at our property and just KNOW where to dig for certain things. Yesterday he pointed to a spot and said, "I bet I can get gravel there."

I reminded him about the rocks and ledge and he showed me a mound. A friggin mound. Somehow he knew that was not rocks but a place to harvest gravel.

Here's that hole about half done.