Now THAT'S an office with a view

My view when I showed up at "the office" a couple days ago. It was beautiful.

More winter brushhogging and land clearing

A long drive down to the Slaughterville/Noble area made for a great day in a fairly remote area.  The temp was still in the 20's when I showed up so the otherwise wet, muddy ground was still hard as a rock.

Some before and after shots of the rough, rugged area.

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New driveway add-on via a retaining wall

Every now and then I get to work on a project that, when finished, the result is something much more than purely aesthetic.

We're not yet finished but with a couple sessions on-site, the results are working out great.

The young man with whom I've been working is confined to a wheelchair due to a freak swimming incident.  He didn't dive in and hit his head on the bottom of the pool but instead crashed head first into the side of an above ground pool.  The injuries were instant and near deadly.  I'll not go into the full details here except to say that it's been a pleasure to meet this young man and help build a spot where he can park his new wheelchair accessible van.

It was almost dark and absolutely freezing when I finished so I forgot to take pictures of just the dirt.

Before:

After - he can now turn his van around at the top of the driveway and not back blindly down the otherwise steep drive.

Winter Brushhoggin'

For obvious reasons, I don't get too many brushhogging jobs in the winter.  But this week I was called upon to brushhog a new home purchase just out of foreclosure.  It took the owners FOUR MONTHS to close the deal and when they finished, they called me immediately.  We'd been in contact for several months prior because they wanted the work done as soon as the final paperwork was signed.

As usual, the field mice were the biggest losers in the deal!  They really just hate to see me coming. :)

This is a before picture of hundreds of 1-2 inch diameter trees that had grown out of control.  By carefully backing into them with a solid brushhog at high speed, they can be relatively easily mowed down and chopped into mulch that will bio-degrade relatively quickly

In the 'after' picture, you can see how the trees have been knocked down and can easily be picked up for other uses or mowed over with a riding mower

This was a nice little semi-urban location and it was fun to see the owner's excitement as one more milestone in their project was achieved.

Beautifying an Edmond backyard

This customer had a beautiful backyard but it was full of debris and stumps (which was part of their cleanup process before I arrived.)  In the clean up process, I dug up over 50 stumps and moved almost a dozen large piles of limbs and wood into various piles in prep for small, occasional burns.  These piles would have taken forever to move by hand.

In the before pics, you can see their view barely extended halfway through their yard and from the back of the yard itself, you couldn't even see their house.

The end result looks fantastic!  They now have their backyard back and ready for seeding or whatever they choose.

Driveway erosion eradicated

This project involved traveling to a very remote area south of Perkins.  My customer has a beautiful acreage but consistently struggled with erosion across their driveway.  Here are some 'before' pictures showing all the erosion.

 We didn't have much to work with so I harvested some dirt from an obscure place on the property and used it to help level the driveway.  I also used the rippers on the box blade to work the dirt a bit.  Because I already had the backhoe on the tractor, I attached it to the front end loader to save time (and money for the customer).

This is not a very good picture and was taken before final grooming of the trench.  To the right, the land rises for quite a distance and this new trench will capture the water before crossing the driveway.


The end result was not only immediately driveable, as a long term solution it is ready for the customer to have gravel delivered and thus make a very nice entrance into their fantastic property. On the left of this picture is a new trench to capture most of the water before it ever hits the driveway.

Carports aplenty

Carports are pretty hot right now due to their low cost and quick assembly.  However, most carport companies require the installation area to be level within 3" upon their arrival.  Otherwise, they'll just install it where you want it and the whole thing will not look right.

My last carport customer had a real mess on their hands.  They needed the carport installed in an area that was full of trash, limbs and old pieces of plywood.

Me and my helper here (my son, who was out of school that day) loaded up all the debris and moved it about 70 yards away for the customer to their burn pile.



Here are some after shots.  It turned out great!



The customer was so pleased he sent me pictures after installation as well.