It was 6:30am and Cold

The morning started early for me - 6:30am and cold - another single digit temperature starter for the day. So up I get and get ready and await the actual real workers. Here is the playing field at the start of the game.

The boys arrived and after a short discussion it was up, up and away. The Toyota Huski Bobcat from Butlers Bobcat Hire got straight to work in ripping up the concrete.

First there was the water tank slab - it flew into the air and then began to crack up and got carted to the truck. These bobcats sure have plenty of grunt.

Then the foundations of the old cactus shed were attacked and removed to the truck. Not long after, the old foundations where the chook shed used to be were taken up and removed. Notice the ground still has grass on it at this stage and looks in a reasonable condition.

The old brick and concrete BBQ was attacked and removed for good.

Since the ground is still pretty doughy, the bobcat was bouncing up and down all over. We ended up finding a very shallow clay pipe - that's in use...  Bugger. So Murphy finally decided to show up. So a quick call to the plumber and I'll have it sorted on Friday and may as well get a few other downpipe fixes and such also done at the same time.

Tree stumps were removed and then the concrete slab under the pavers was broken up and removed. Amazing what a bobcat can do. No jackhammer required, just apply enough hydraulic force and something will break - and in my case it was the concrete. I have a sneaky suspicion that the bobcat pilot had done this before.

In between all of this demolition, the B double with crushed concrete fill arrived and gingerly did some unloading onto the driveway. Not so easy with a dirty big poinciana tree on the footpath. Here is the "A" unit.

And here is the "B" unit. Lots of fill - lots of it.

All of this fill got taken out back and spread around. They even had to place a call for another load - just an "A" unit this time. I wonder if they could fit a real "A" unit shell onto a truck? Imagine a semi coming down the road with an old GM hood on her!

The grass was then taken up where the new slab is to go and more fill added. So at smoko time, we (I use the royal we since I am the one paying the bills, if not doing the work) had a back yard something like this.

We also had another load for the tip.

Finally a leveling gadget was gripped up by the bobcat and the ground leveled out. A laser level and spots of paint to mark some level spots for the boys in the morning who'll box it and pour in the concrete.

The last thing was to put a pile of fill down the side of the house and in the driveway, as the bobcat had chopped it up pretty good. I got out the rake too and leveled it out a bit more on the footpath side just in case anyone trips over the lumps in the fill.

I am now so tuckered out having seen some real workers doing their thing! So here are the shots of the playground at the end of the day.

It is now 2:30pm and the only real worker here, our illustrious bobcat pilot, has cleaned up after himself (not like a lot of sparkies I've used before!).

So as we say goodby to our fearless bobcat pilot, I think an amber ale might refresh me a bit. Tomorrow morning will come round fast enough and I'll be out there watching the workers again. This time the concreters will be there boxing up the slab and pouring it!