More Removal, But Not Trees

Once upon a time, when we moved into our house, a big and I mean REALLY big water tank (we didn't know how big it was) buried in the yard north of our garage was used to store water for the subdivision to be used when the electricity went off. With no electricity to run the well, there was no water.  There was no circulation in that tank, the water just sat there and grew things, so if the water was dispersed, all the yuck would go right into our house pipes. 

Jim wanted it out of there. 

He fought hard to get it disconnected from the water system and the little shed that housed the valves removed. The tank remained, making a nice little hill that the kids would sled down, but Jim wanted it gone and the ground leveled.

A few years ago, he brought an excavator out to dig it out and discovered the thing was huge! 

Like 9 feet in diameter.  

Far too big for any thing he had, so it stayed in the ground, under it's little hill. 

Now, with this huge excavator pulling up our trees, Jim decides it's time to dig out that tank. 

So, they do.

There are far more photos of this tank than anyone really need to see, but the scope of the whole business is just beyond belief and I want the photos.

When the time came to pull it out, they hooked a log chain to the tank and pulled. The chain broke. They put on another chain and pulled. That chain broke. It really was more than the excavator could handle. Using a cable, they dragged the tank to the end of the yard.

Nicely piled dirt from the hole to keep the tank from rolling away.

Loading

And away it goes. It weighed 35000 pounds at the scrap yard.

Filling and Compacting

We had the boys come to see the big hole.

Filled in and ready to be leveled. 

Leveling both the tank spot and the tree spot

Tree Removal -- Part 2

Early May, the project begins.

This photo has nothing to do with the trees except Jim is using the tractor for hauling branches and it shows the newly sown grass spot.

A big enough excavator picks up a trees like we pick up sticks.

These few cedars come down by breaking down the top first.

It took 12 loads to take away the branches. Jim will cut up the logs to use in the fireplace.

 

Tree Removal

Jim has slowly been taking down the pines in our wind break, which is made up of a row of dying pines, a row of thorny, pod producing locusts, and lastly a row of cedars.  Early in May we were approached by the power company wanting to top the cedars directly under the power line and Jim asked if they could just take the cedars out all together and they agreed to take part of them down. Since they were going down he decided all the pines should go and hired a friend who has a huge excavator to get it done in a hurry. That plan turned into a larger one, take out the locusts too, and further, some of the cedars as well, since the power company would only budget for removal of part of them. 

Jim by himself.

The gaps in our windbreak are pines that have already been removed.

With an excavator, there is no cutting down of trees. The operator loosens the ground around the trunk and then picks up the tree and puts it on the pile.

These next few pictures show the emptiness that is showing up. 

These pines are going to stay.

This is only the beginning.