Since I’m just camping at this point, it sure would be nice to have a picnic table I can park at my site, leave, and use whenever I’m there, right? I wanted something that would weather well, something I could build at home, pack flat, and assemble on site without power tools. So I made some plans, took a trip to the hardware store, and had some fun. OK, it didn’t pack flat, but it did pack into a pickup truck bed and assemble fast with my super sweet Milwaukee cordless impact driver. (I love that thing.)
Initial table assembly in yard in Berkeley. Fresh redwood is pretty.
Table after disassembly, transport and reassembly in the mountains!
I would shovel in the morning
I would shovel in the evening
All over this land.
I got a shovel. A really big shovel. It’s a late ’70’s Case backhoe that spent years on an almond orchard in the Central Valley. It will make short work of cutting in driveways, maintaining fire breaks, digging a septic system, trenching for utilities, and eventually clearing building sites and digging my basement — once I learn to use the thing with any degree of skill. School starts now.
Although it works today, I do have some mechanical work to do, new tires, clearing up a couple of hydraulic ram leaks, brake maintenance, and minor electrical gremlins. It all seems pretty straightforward and I procured a factory service manual, of course. Just tradeoffs for getting a big, burly piece of equipment like this at an affordable price.
Friends Joe, Adam and I took delivery of the hoe midday on Saturday and by 8pm we had about 300′ of new driveway that was, if not smooth sailing, at least passable even in a passenger car. The home site, that I could only get to in 4-Low by a circuitous route before, is now an easy drive in. I’ll work on smoothing it out some more next time I get a work day up there. Sneak preview: that should be in about 2 weeks when we will be taking down a giant, recently-ish dead Western Red Cedar. Fingers crossed it’s still good lumber and not a giant carpenter ant nest…. Watch this space!!!
Joe limbing felled cedar while clearing driveway.Your author and erstwhile backhoe pilot.Joe and Adam of the Strong Backs.Hoe working on new driveway.
