It's been an awesome and busy weekend over here, so lots of pictures and let us get this blog written.
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| In the car ready to head off |
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| Rosie in the trolley about to go into JUMBO |
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| A huge dolly, and a new favourite |
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| Picking out what we want to eat |
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| Rosie with her new slippers |
Angela took herself off on a very well deserved break for the weekend leaving me with Rosie which was brilliant. On Saturday we got ourselves into the car (with Bombur the giant teddy) and drove all the way to JUMBO to do some toy shopping, and buy some clothes for me amongst other things. Rosie was very good the entire time, had a great time looking around, and picked one thing to buy (though I sneaked a few bits in for Christmas) which was a dolly that is bigger than her! We then went on to a restaurant I've been to a fair few times and had a nice lunch and after that back in Thomas to drive home. I was exhausted by the end of the day but Rosie was still going strong. I'd picked up some new slippers for her to wear at home and she loved them and modelled for a picture for Angela.
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| Rosie on the trampoline with new dolly |
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| A little time on the swing |
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| Walking the puppies up the hill |
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| A very very deep trench |
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| Playing in the sand |
Sunday started with trampoline time and Dolly Boy (or now, Big Dolly Rosie - she's not yet settled on a name) had to join her. She had a great time. It was a cool enough day but we wrapped up warm and went into the garden where she swung on her swing for a bit before declaring she wanted to walk up the hill to the echo pipe (the new gas pipeline that is being laid). We got the puppies ready and headed off up the hill. It was good apart from when Louise tripped Rosie with her lead but that got sorted out and we made it to the pipe, shouted down it a bit (Louise was most confused by the dog barking back at her that sounded the same as her) and then went and checked out the trench that has been dug to bury the pipe. It's huge, such a deep trench. They are making great progress. After that it was back home for lunch and to wait for Angela to get back, which she did safely and she had had a great time. What a lovely weekend, and such a pleasure to have Rosie being so good all the time. Thankfully!!
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| Halil gets started on the grouting this morning |
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| Looking down at the hole we dug |
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| Getting to the end finally |
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| Shovelling and digging |
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| A trench for the water pipe |
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| More fun for Rosie |
And so to today. The men were in on time and went onto the roof terrace where they had more grouting left to do than I realised however they got stuck in and got it completed soon enough. There's a little more cleaning up to be done tomorrow and then that job is finally finished (though we will need to put up some barriers, and put the wooden seats around the walls, soon enough). They then went downstairs and got the pickaxe and shovel out and dug out a deeper trench to put the new water pipe into. This took the rest of the day and shows just why I am thinking about buying a digger. More on that in a minute. Rosie came home from school and came to see what was going on then after a little Peppa we went onto the balcony for more jumping then play time before bed. It was a nice evening, and we really are regularly contemplating just how lucky we are right now.
So to the digger. I'm still not convinced whether a large digger is what we need; we're now thinking about getting a smaller tracked back hoe and a small bobcat style loader. It's a big thing, and we know we NEED one for all the jobs up at the mountain house (and around here) so getting it right is very important. There's no rush, now the digging here has been done, so we'll talk and consider and listen to advice and make a decision when we are fully happy with it.
Thanks for reading, and see you tomorrow.
My sister had a doll just like the one Rosie now has; for whatever reason it was called Belinda.
ReplyDeleteDiggers; this is what we did. We were originally going to get a s/h compact Kubota tractor with a front bucket and a back actor; this fell through. We ended up with a very old Kubota tracked digger with 3 buckets; despite the age, it worked very well. It was, IIRC, a KH model, so about 3 tons.
We also got two Kubota compact tractors from the B range, a 2710 and a 2410. The 2710 had a front loader; the 2410 had a tipping trailer and a flail mower. We originally had a hedge trimmer for the 2710, but didn't use it much; it was the finger bar cutter type. If you have a rear mounted flail mower hedge trimmer you must have a cabin on the tractor to protect yourself — more expense.
We later got a very heavy vertical log splitter for the 2710, and a link box. We got a mid-mounted rotary mower and rear mounted grass collector for the 2410.
This is the advantage of a compact tractor; the range of accessories that can be mounted, mostly fairly easily. It was the work of a few minutes to remove the front bucket or the grass collector.
Removing a back actor on such a tractor would take half a day.
A bob cat or skid-steer loader is very much a one trick pony, it doesn't do anything else.
So try to think what you might be doing in the next 10 years or more; a flail mower is very useful, as is a mid mounted deck. How much longer will you need to do digging, and transporting soil or hardcore etc?
Good luck with your search! And find a friendly, local seller of such machines, one who is generous with advice.
Thank you for this. Sounds like our thoughts are heading in roughly the same direction. For mowing I will be getting a dedicated ride-on mower I think; I want lawn mowing, not hay mowing, but other than that I think a 2.5 tonne or so tracking backhoe and maybe a small tractor; that was very interesting and useful advice as I had not considered that, only the skid-steer bobcat type thing.
DeleteRegarding how long we'd need it, who knows. Plans could be to continue to grow our property collection and so it could be years.
Thanks again for the time sharing your experience - it is very highly valued!
I've got a local digger driver to help us (the guy who was in on Friday) who is being very helpful indeed.
Thanks
I very much look forward to reading your illustrated history of diggers and machinery!
DeleteI realise it's difficult to imagine things a decade or so in the future; we certainly had this problem, and thus making decisions now is so difficult.
If you are thinking of s/h stuff, then you need a good, reliable local dealer. I did read that contractors use machinery up to nearly 10,000 hours, but I don't know how accurate this is.
For one-time major work it might/could be easier to rent a machine, or get a chap with a big digger to do it.
Talking of diggers, they should come with 3 buckets; one of these will be a 'sheugh bucket'. You might need to ask A what a 'sheugh' is!😂
Good luck!
the problem with hiring is no one wants to go up to the mountain house (this isn't for the school - we can hire in for here and have done over the years) and the work is "a bit today, a bit tomorrow a bit next week" and that would become prohibitively expensive even if we could find someone willing to drive all the way up there in their digger. They charge by the hour from when they leave their depot so we're 4 hours out before they've done a single bit of work :D
DeleteWe are considering the smaller digger for the main work we need, and the guy who is helping me out says he would come up, and he has a big digger so could maybe do the huge work in a couple or three days "splurge" leaving his machine up there over night etc etc
I am very much leaning towards a smaller digger and originally I wanted a half size one, but finding stuff here is incredibly tough and particularly in our location and specific region
thanks dude, you know the blog will contain all of it, warts and all :)