Some good stuff happening

[BWR1953]

Making maneuvering room! All ships need appropriate room to maneuver, right?

Haven't worked on my Kingfisher or Chieftain projects for a month or so. Home projects have taken priority, including making some major changes in the yard for the boats. Since this particular yard project affects both boat projects, I figured that I'd post it as a separate topic instead of adding the info to both of the other threads.

In order to haul all three of the boats around (including the glasser donor boat) I needed to remove a bunch of trees and shrubs. Finally got my little garden tractor fixed and started what I could with that. Then I hired my neighbor buddy to help and he made more progress in a few minutes with my chainsaw and his tractor than I could in a week.

He cut down twenty-some trees and started stacking them for a burn pile. Couldn't burn them because the weather was too perfect! Seriously. When we called for a permit, we were told that the humidity was too low and they weren't issuing permits. :noidea:

I was going to rent a backhoe this weekend to dig out the stumps but my buddy couldn't work this weekend so that will have to wait a week. But in the meantime we'll get as much done before we bring in the excavator.

There is much more that's going to happen over the next few weeks as I prepare the area for boat work! Stay tuned...

View from the "back 40" with the Kingfisher tent and the Chief in view.


Burn pile started... burning will have to wait till the weather turns more yucky. LOL


These stumps will be removed so that I can pull the boats through this area.


View from the tent shelter.


This tree island is being cleared to allow a much better view of the property... and the boats!


Yeah, my buddy dropped a tree next to the glasser. It didn't hit it directly but did roll over and bump the side. No damage to the 50HP Mercury though! Whew!


Back 40 area being cleared.




Another view from the back 40.


In this video, he got two trees cut down before I could even get the camera/phone ready!
Click to view video

 

[Watermann]

Trees are over rated... Not enough can be said for having lots of room for indulging ones MBS. :lol:

 

[jbcurt00]

Keep some of the larger trees. Might need to rig a Jasoutside motor/boat hoist from 1 or 2

Otherwise nice work clearing some space

 

[BWR1953]

Made more progress today even though my buddy wasn't here with his big Massey Ferguson tractor.

It was just me, the boy, and my Craftsman II garden tractor. Put that mechanical beastie to work for real. Abused it, even! It took it okay and didn't break. Thank goodness. My friend specifically asked me NOT to break it this year! Unlike prior years! :lol:​


Dragged a bunch of trees from this area over to the burn pile. Still more to do here though! Those palmetto bushes will go, as will all the stumps and that old cement block garden area.



Burn pile is getting BIG! Gonna have to bust it up into smaller pieces before setting it ablaze.



Cleared some of the tree island next to the donor boat. Will be leaving the pine trees thoujgh. Will be removing the palmettos from in there as well. The goal is to have a clear view of green grass all the way to the back of the property.



That big Sand Live Oak tree in the pic (the gray looking one) is what I'll use to pull the 50HP Merc off the nasty glasser using a chain hoist I got from HF. This is the time of year when those trees drop their leaves (instead of in the autumn), so it looks a bit wimpy compared to its summertime glory. And the Chieftain has that glasser in sight! Stand by to fire torpedoes! :lol:

 

[Watermann]

You're going to have a right proper boat yard before too long!

 

[Watermann]

Forgot to add something!

 

[BWR1953]

Well, my progress is gonna slow down a bit. My wife had a fender bender yesterday (no injuries to anyone) and we'll have to deal with insurance, body shops and such.

Plus, I'll have to take her to and from work every day until her car is repaired. She works a split shift so it'll be twice a day for me to drive her to and fro.

Delays, delays. Sigh...:upset:





Under the blue tarp in the background is the 70HP Mercury that will go on the Chieftain.

 

[jbcurt00]

Bummer on the damage and delay

Glad nobody got hurt.

I've never done permanent split shifts, but if/when needed I've done a bunch of them, no joy.....

Good luck w repairs, hope she works close to home.

 

[BWR1953]

Bummer on the damage and delay

Glad nobody got hurt.

I've never done permanent split shifts, but if/when needed I've done a bunch of them, no joy.....

Good luck w repairs, hope she works close to home.

Thank ya sir!

My wife works 15 miles from home and I'll be making 8 trips a day in order to get her back and forth. That's just for her. In addition, I take the boy to and from school as well. So I'll be chauffeuring a lot more for the time being.

Hopefully, this arrangement won't be for too long and her car will be repaired quickly. The process has started and the claims adjuster should be here tomorrow. He called her twice today and did some preliminary stuff. The ball is in motion...

 

[Decker83]

I hate it when that happens.. (accident) Who was at fault in the accident? Do you have rental on your policy?
If the other party is at fault then there insurance company should pay for the rental car.
Good no one was hurt..

If you go as fast on the chieftain as you have clearing the land, it will be done in no time..

 

[Watermann]

Fender bender is all it looks like. That news sure seems out of place in a thread titled "some good stuff happening". :lol:

 

[BWR1953]

Well, the insurance company wrote my wife's car off as a total loss. :grumpy:

Cost of repairs exceeded the value of the car. Dangitall. I'd hoped that we could have avoided that scenario. My wife was quite upset but now understands the lesson that she learned. The accident was her fault and no, we don't have rental car insurance on our policy. But with her car being written off, that probably doesn't matter anyway.

I've been driving 5 hours every day to take my wife to work and the boy to school. That's more hours than my wife actually works every day!

We'll start looking for a replacement car for her this coming week. :car:

 

[BWR1953]

On the good news front, we got tons of yard work done this weekend! Literally!

I have a zillion pix and a bunch of videos. Gonna take me awhile to compile everything but I'll get 'em posted as quickly as I can.

 

[BWR1953]

Here are the pix and video of the yard work compiled. I took 85 pictures and recorded over 35 minutes of video! Took awhile to parse it all down to something more manageable.

 

[Watermann]

Oh man I was on the edge of my seat when that little track hoe was caressing that nasty glasser, kind of a let down when he didn't demolish it :lol:

 

[BWR1953]

Oh man I was on the edge of my seat when that little track hoe was caressing that nasty glasser, kind of a let down when he didn't demolish it :lol:

Well, the excavator was returned yesterday but my buddy has two big tractors which might be able to work on that little boat! :lol:

 

[redneck joe]

Is this a boat or a yard rehab???

 

[BWR1953]

A few pix from today showing that the tree island is completely gone and the holes are filled. Man, that excavator was really powerful and amazingly efficient. We ran that machine hard for 8 solid hours (on the hour meter) and it only used 6 gallons of diesel!

Speaking of running the machine... I was able to get an hour of seat time operating that excavator! Way fun but my buddy is easily 10 times more efficient than me. :soap:

Still more work to do but plenty of progress has been made creating some maneuvering room for my little fleet. Didn't light off the burn pile due to high winds even though I was able to secure a permit. Will wait till the weather is right before burning. Gotta stay safe.


This is where the tree island with those 2 large Slash Pine tree used to be, where the little glasser had been sitting. We left that one stump because it's just a bit too close to the septic system. We'll get it out with a chainsaw and a stump grinder.


Looking south from the shelter covering the Kingfisher. There had been a bunch of trees and palmetto bushes there and those have been cleared out.


View southeast showing where the trees behind the shed have been removed as well as the entire tree island. All filled now.

 

[BWR1953]

Is this a boat or a yard rehab???

Yes! :lol:

 

[lckstckn2smknbrls]

Well, my progress is gonna slow down a bit. My wife had a fender bender yesterday (no injuries to anyone) and we'll have to deal with insurance, body shops and such.

Plus, I'll have to take her to and from work every day until her car is repaired. She works a split shift so it'll be twice a day for me to drive her to and fro.

Delays, delays. Sigh...:upset:





Under the blue tarp in the background is the 70HP Mercury that will go on the Chieftain.

A new headlight and some duct tape and the car will be good for years to come.