01-27-2013, 12:33 PM
I could be in for March 16, Biff.
My back is killing me right now...
The work day yesterday started off slow. Fortunately we got there late due to weather. Clay and I arrived at the Hunt camp around 10:30. All the dirt roads were still frozen over, so we unloaded the Bronco and drove it to the double parking area. We got there and talked with a few guys about what was going on and where people were working. Turns out that they were not very far in on the rocky mtn loop. As we got there it began warming up enough to begin melting the ice on the trees. The bobcat was running and drilling post holes for us to do some guardrail sections (which is what we ended up doing all day).
After doing a few sections we called it quits for lunch. To me, it felt like we got nothing done. Eli managed to hurt his leg pretty good while trying to climb into the bobcat. His shoe slipped and his leg caught the front of the machine. After about 10 minutes of standing around, someone else climbed in and fumbled around with it. The machine had the rubber tracks on it and they didn't offer much traction. We had to winch that thing about anywhere we had to get it to go. It did a great job of digging post holes though with the post hole attachment on it. Had a lot of people on hand (30-35 was the estimate), but it felt like a true gov't project with 1 person using a shovel and 3-5 people making sure he was using it correctly.
Snappy had cooked up some Brunswick stew for us. Terrific on a cold day. I stood around with my hands affixed to the bowl, trying to warm them up. Lunch broke up at 1:15 and we loaded some guardrail from the parking lot onto vehicles or behind vehicles in order to get them to the base of Kodak rock. We got to the hill that starts to go up to the ledge before Kodak. By now everything had warmed up, thawed out, and became a soupy mess of snot. The bobcat went nowhere. We had to drag it pretty much the whole way up to Kodak. Only the rigs that were locked front and rear went up the hill without winching. I had to pull cable once, as I was dragging a section of guard rail and couldn't back up.
After a bit we got the rails up. We loaded a built white XJ up with the posts. His tires were hitting the quarters. I have no idea how much weight was in it, but it was a good bit! From there, we got the bobcat in place and made good time installing every bit of guardrail that we had on hand. It turned out to go very well. By now Eli was back in the bobcat and we got a game plan together on measuring, drilling, setting, and bolting the rail. By the end of the day (4:30 or so) we were all done, both physically and with the job. Loaded it all up, and drove home. At least the bobcat made it down the mountain without issue.
I'm gonna need to break out the pressure washer again soon. The one XJ in the pic says it all. One big muddy mess...
My back is killing me right now...
The work day yesterday started off slow. Fortunately we got there late due to weather. Clay and I arrived at the Hunt camp around 10:30. All the dirt roads were still frozen over, so we unloaded the Bronco and drove it to the double parking area. We got there and talked with a few guys about what was going on and where people were working. Turns out that they were not very far in on the rocky mtn loop. As we got there it began warming up enough to begin melting the ice on the trees. The bobcat was running and drilling post holes for us to do some guardrail sections (which is what we ended up doing all day).
After doing a few sections we called it quits for lunch. To me, it felt like we got nothing done. Eli managed to hurt his leg pretty good while trying to climb into the bobcat. His shoe slipped and his leg caught the front of the machine. After about 10 minutes of standing around, someone else climbed in and fumbled around with it. The machine had the rubber tracks on it and they didn't offer much traction. We had to winch that thing about anywhere we had to get it to go. It did a great job of digging post holes though with the post hole attachment on it. Had a lot of people on hand (30-35 was the estimate), but it felt like a true gov't project with 1 person using a shovel and 3-5 people making sure he was using it correctly.
Snappy had cooked up some Brunswick stew for us. Terrific on a cold day. I stood around with my hands affixed to the bowl, trying to warm them up. Lunch broke up at 1:15 and we loaded some guardrail from the parking lot onto vehicles or behind vehicles in order to get them to the base of Kodak rock. We got to the hill that starts to go up to the ledge before Kodak. By now everything had warmed up, thawed out, and became a soupy mess of snot. The bobcat went nowhere. We had to drag it pretty much the whole way up to Kodak. Only the rigs that were locked front and rear went up the hill without winching. I had to pull cable once, as I was dragging a section of guard rail and couldn't back up.
After a bit we got the rails up. We loaded a built white XJ up with the posts. His tires were hitting the quarters. I have no idea how much weight was in it, but it was a good bit! From there, we got the bobcat in place and made good time installing every bit of guardrail that we had on hand. It turned out to go very well. By now Eli was back in the bobcat and we got a game plan together on measuring, drilling, setting, and bolting the rail. By the end of the day (4:30 or so) we were all done, both physically and with the job. Loaded it all up, and drove home. At least the bobcat made it down the mountain without issue.
I'm gonna need to break out the pressure washer again soon. The one XJ in the pic says it all. One big muddy mess...