Why own an excavator?
Excavators are all purpose machines that can do a lot of varied jobs. We are lucky to have a tremendously varied 20 acre property with a lot of different situations that has a lot of potential work to do:
For starters:
1) A road to the back (upper) end of the property to access the Douglas Fir trees that are being ravaged by Armillaria for the last decade and now lately fir beetle. Right now there is no access road back up there and so no way to get the wood out while it still has some value as timber (before it dies) or even firewood (after it is dead and has no value as lumber any more). This machine can not only build the road into this area, but also move the logs to staging areas, load the logging trucks, and then clean out the stumps (necessary to control the Armillaria, which is the latin for root rot).
2) That same access road with a side extension can give us access to our main water supply, a mountain spring, which gives us 50 lbs pressure. We can enlarge it, improve its water retention, keep it clean etc better with road access and equipment/materials like concrete etc. Currently it is foot access only which has its limitations, and although it holds up well during prolonged drought, we could use more for gardens and lawns and trees during the low periods which seem to be getting worse every summer lately.
3) Pond construction in the low areas. Right now there are a couple of acres that floods at spring time and goes dry in the fall/winter. Western Painted turtles make a hazardous journey to come here to lay their eggs every year because of the sand around the west edge, but then have to leave when the water disappears. Perhaps if we can make a large and deep enough pond they will be able to stay year round. They are an endangered species mainly because of habitat destruction and it would be nice to have a safe place they could live year round.
4) There are still several possible well digging areas where we might be able to tap small aquifers coming off the mountain, judging by the water plants in those areas. We've hired diggers in the past but so far success has eluded us. With our own digger and time for more patient exploration, who knows...
At the controls of JennyDarling one day after she arrived.