My next project

[Hirsch]

Stage two of fencing my backyard is getting ready to start. My house faces due south but is on a slight curve in the road. Due to that curve, my lot is sort of shaped like a slice of pie. The property line on the east side is about 11 ft from my house at the back corner and about 16ft at the front corner. On that side, and across the back, there is a 6ft privacy fence on the property line and I have a 4ft chain link across the front. I'm pulling up the chain link and moving back to the back corner of the house and putting up a 6ft privacy fence.

On the other side there is an old 4ft chain link that is being removed and replaced with a 6ft fence. That side of the yard and behind the screened in porch gets no sunlight and no grass will grow there and my Husky has turned it to a mud pit.

I'm having a fencing company do the fence, but I get to have fun. I'm getting 6 cubic yards of 1 inch washed gravel dumped in my driveway and I'm renting a Bobcat(skid/steer bucket loader) to cover the mud with 3 inches of gravel.

Before and after pictures start tomorrow.

[SpecialTool]

One thing I soon learned when writing about construction equipment -- Caterpillar, John Deere, New Holland, Mustang et al hate it when you call skid steers Bobcats!

Are you just getting a stand-on job or going for the cabbed variety? Lots of good honest fun either way but of course the cab will get you double kudos!

[Hirsch]

I'm getting the real deal with a cab.

It's a John Deere and the guy at Arts Rental Equipment kept correcting me every time I called it a Bobcat!

I need to watch the weather, if it stays dry today(50% chance of rain) I should be OK. We have 80's forecast for Monday and Tuesday, hopefully the ground drys out enough today and tomorrow, otherwise I'll have to buy a bunch of sheets of cheap plywood.

[Hirsch]

Bobcat rented, set for delivery tomorrow morning. Load of gravel ordered, set for dumping in my driveway this afternoon.

Fence company coming in tomorrow morning.

And I was wrong, it is a Bobcat, not a John Deere!

[nordwulf]

Try some of these moves and make sure to put it on Youtube..

[Hirsch]

Before pics, as promised.



West side of my house. The chain link fence you see is being replaced with 6ft privacy fencing


Another view of the west side, the screened in porch keeps sunlight from getting to the west side and behind the porch.


East side. This chain link is being moved back to the rear corner of the house and replaced with 6ft privacy.


Where the fence will end up on the east side.


Back of the house, behind the porch. Here and along the west side is where I'm putting the gravel.


6 cubic yards of 1 inch washed gravel.

[Shazam]

Is that a Ford LTD wagon?

Looks like you've got your work cut out. Are you sure you don't want to go to Arizona? The gravel lawn tends to be a bit more popular there. Beats mud though, and you'll save on time for mowing the lawn!

[Hirsch]

Yes, that is an LTD wagon. POS. It's been sitting in that spot for 3 months. The owner started it yesterday with the intention of getting it moving. The transmission is shot and it started to leak brake fluid, so he shut it off and walked away, leaving it to drip brake fluid all over the pavement underneath it. I went out and through some oil dry down last night.

I'd move to Arizona in a minute, if all my family weren't here.

[Hirsch]

Got my part of the work done. The fence guys removed the old fence and set new posts today. They'll be back on Thursday to finish. I was not aware of this and I'm not exactly pleased, but there's not much I can do. They rigged some temporary fencing across the front on each side, so Lexi has the run of my yard and my neighbors.

It's been 15 years since I've been on a Bobcat, but it all came back. Unfortunately the east side of the yard wasn't fully dry and thats the only side that I could access the back from. It's narrow so I had to use the path over and over, which left me with some deep ruts. I contemplated getting some plywood, but thought it was dry enough. Then there's the shredded grass in the back yard from turning the Bobcat around.

So the next project is getting a load of topsoil in my F150 and spreading it in the back yard. Then seeding and strawing.

[Hirsch]

I only got one picture of the Bobcat before my camera battery died. Also, obligatory Saab picture.

Fence posts in, gravel down on the west side of the house.


Behind the porch.


The next project, a load of topsoil in my F150, created by this project.


Because I had to keep going over the same area, I have some pretty deep ruts in the yard!