Thursday, December 18, 2008

Neighbors have a job too: excavating a road, spreading dirt, and making a 1st class RV perch

Luc was working on the neighbor's terrace (see December 16th post) and the neighbors hired him and sometimes partner Doug Roraback to haul dirt to their site to create a parking spot for their RV on a steep embankment. The job consisted of filling in a large "dip" in the hillside with dirt and creating a road to the site. Once filled in, the area will serve as a parking spot for the home owners RV. The proposed parking site will also have a magnificent view of the water.

Doug hauled more than 25 large dump truck loads of dirt from Greenbank & Coupeville to the site in Clinton. Luc used his excavator to move the dirt, shape the land, fill in the dip, and lie gravel on the newly formed road. Here is where the road meets the new road Luc made

Filling in the "dip" and the view of the water.


Just beginning the filling in process. Look for this stump in the following pictures to get an idea of how the job progressed.

Part of the road to the RV site


RV site-to-be



Moving the dirt in to the site

Stump is pictured on the left. Excavator perched precariously.

Now this is perched precariously!


Road to the RV site with Doug's dump truck (blue) dumping a load at the future RV site.


the road to RV site
Above: the final finished platform

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Terracing a steep hillside to create planting beds in Clinton: excavator, land remodling, dump truck work

The owners of this property wanted to make their steep hillside into planting beds. Luc used his excavator to sculpt the land into 5 even terraces. This meant moving and bringing in a lot of dirt, including a nice layer of compost for the top (notice how dark the soil is!). The end result is a beautiful wave that undulates down the hillside. Next: planting!


Above: terraces with natural weed-reducing newspaper layer and on top of that compost


Above: terraces as viewed from hilltop



dump truck and excavator at work...



Terraces before adding newspaper and compost layers