Wednesday, 29 July 2020: By the Bay

Butch called last Thursday to say he would be here Friday. He and his 56,000 pound machine plus two smaller excavators.  Let’s see what that can do to screw up our lawn... a fix our breakwall!

Before.  The wheelbarrow helps get the perspective on the size of this machine.

Several trees had to come down so that the machine could have full range of motion.

I was sad to loose that nice branch from the willow tree, but now that it is gone I like the unobstructed view.  

The excavator works out in the water and so does Justin.

These stones are huge!  Some weigh as much as 6,000 lbs.  Moving them with the fork lift blades is like something from the cartoons.  The weight of the rock in front causes the wheels to come up off the ground in the back.  They spin around trying to gain purchase. Meanwhile, in front, the stone then acts as a snow plow digging up the gravel.. Aargh!

Butch is like a proud papy!

Tons and tons of stone were delivered.

We took down our lone martin house.  Maybe I'll paint it and get it up again next year.  Martins eat lots of mosquitoes so I sure have that motivation. 

After just one day our Justin tried to make sense of the lawn.

Before

After with all the stones in place and soil smoothed out.  Next step grass seed, straw and watering.  

They pulled out today, Wednesday. The stone is MASSIVE, much higher than before, and expertly placed. This is the first time we’ve felt secure about our shoreline since we bought the property.  We did a few other things that Justin has wanted to get done for a long time too. We removed the stump from the willow near the road that I backed into when we first looked at the property.  It had fallen in a storm the following winter.  We chopped it up for fire wood but the stump remained.   We widened the beach access and laid large, flat stone at the bottom— this is really nice now.  We re-oriented our driveway and added a culvert and gravel to create access to the north part of the property. Justin is just itching to get in there with his new chain saw.  The original bridge was quite rickety and as much as Jonas and Caleb like to roam around and catch toads, I’ll be happy to see it down.  Before we even started I told Justin that at the end I wanted them to spend one more half day on landscaping.  With their machinery and at $180/ hour they can get a lot more done than Justin and I can get done in three months.  Money well spent!!! These are huge improvements all around. It's amazing what you can get for $22,500.  So, now, we're up to our whatsits in replanting, re-seeding, etc.

Meanwhile, I tried my hand at a Carrot ricotta tart — yummy!

And, when I was in Houston, I mentioned to Dellene that I needed to buy flatware for our Hartung house.  She gently reminded me that I had oodles of silverware at her house.  I opted to leave the sterling silver with Dellene so she sent Mamaw's silver plate for us to use in Wisconsin.  I found it amusing that the care instructions that were still included didn't even mention a dishwasher.  I know it isn't a good idea but I also know I'll be using the dishwasher if we really do end up at Hartung for the winter.  Justin and I still really want to go to Mexico but it just doesn't look good.  We wait and I fret.  

Justin and I decided to end the day in style after Butch and his team were gone.  I went back to an Ann and Jim tradition -- hamburgers and champagne.   I've already taken our champagne glasses to Hartung so we used wine glasses instead.  And, as much as I hate paper plates, I wasn't going to set myself up for too many dishes tonight!  Hamburger meat from Marchant's along with homemade coleslaw and homegrown tomatoes made it all ok.