Moving Mud - Rain and a Stuck CAT

Yesterday was wet -  NOT the best day for bringing in a CAT and moving a lot of dirt. By mid-afternoon, the guys were grumpy, the yard was still high in some spots and low in others, everyone was very cold, and the CAT was stuck. Yes, stuck.

The patio was pulled apart quickly and taken off to Frador for recycling. A large truckload of coarse fill had been deposited across the driveway, effectively blocking DH into the house. No getting his car through that! In fact, I ended up having to park in the driveway overnight - not my favorite thing to do, but necessary, and still better than parking on the street.

If you compare this photo to yesterday's, you can see the castle walls, but
no patio pavement in front of it. We accomplished something, at least.
Here, the CAT is doing the rough work for the grading. Just look at all
that mud! 

After the patio was gone, they got to work on leveling the soil and laying the fill where we needed it - under the patio as well as where the new shed will be erected. I told DH to pay close attention, and he was doing so, but it was wet and cold. By the end of the day he was an icicle. Toward mid-afternoon the workers wanted to get the CAT out of the lower yard, and began driving it up the muddy pathway towards the front. That's when things took a less friendly move.

It looks relatively easy in this photo, but
that's deceptive. The left is actually a steep drop-off at
the back of the CAT, and those metal plates
are quite slippery. Still, the metal provides more
traction than the muddy slope itself. As
long as the CAT doesn't tumble into the
creek overnight, we'll all be fine. 

The CAT got stuck. The first picture looks fairly benign, but there's a steep drop-off to the right of the brick wall of the house, and the CAT is actually a lot more precarious in the slippery mud than it looks in the photo. It's trying to climb up these textured metal plates that they laid down from the driveway on down to the side pathway. But they should probably have put a couple more down, because the machine lost traction on the slick mud, slid about a yard sideways toward the creek drop-off, and was stuck.

Looking at the CAT from the back, you get a better idea of the angle
and slope. The greenery on the right isn't big enough to stop a
construction machine from taking a serious tumble. They'll have to
be very careful as they try to get it out of there today. The rear
slipped over at least a yard when they were trying to get it out
of the lower yard and into the front late yesterday afternoon.

Today they will try to get the CAT out again. It stopped raining late yesterday afternoon and won't start up again until late tonight, so they'll have one day without rain to get the CAT out, level the back correctly, and, hopefully, begin work on the patio. Or maybe it's a different crew that takes care of laying the paver stones? I have no idea. But right now it's a very expensive comedy of errors. Boys and mud - what can you say?

Enjoy your Tuesday. Hopefully it will be a better one all around!