Over the past eight months I've created trails through the hillside where I wanted the driveway, house and other items on our property. It was hard for him to follow the trails as he's cutting the hillside into a driveway, and pushing dirt onto my trails, downhill and out of his view.
Here's a picture of the trail after the right turn of the S curve. The left hand turn is about 40' lower. You'll see the actual driveway he cut on that trail in the video below.
I stayed close by and directed him as he cut through the rock and dirt. I ran back up the hill for a few minutes and when I returned I noticed he hadn't made the right turn down the hill. I designed the driveway with a gentle S curve so the house will not be visible from the road. I had him stop again, showed him the path and after a course correction he was on his way. Turns out the extra straight area he cut was in the perfect spot. I planned on having an 8' X 10' concrete diesel generator/solar controller and battery house around that area, so that's where I'll put it. This will keep the generator noise at the house to a minimum during power outages. It also makes a straight shot up the hill if we decide to connect to commercial power.
Here's Chico heading up the road towards the viewpoint. Our driveway is on the right.
Basically the same picture but this shows the dozer at the start of the S curve.
After another 40' down the hill he made it to my trail to the west headed toward the house. It was quick work for him to cut a path straight through to the center of the main dome area. Now the work begins to cut down the house pad to fit both domes and the link. After the house area is cleared he'll drop down and cut the straight sides around 3/5's of the main dome for the concrete cistern/wrap around deck.
Once Chico left for the day Denise and I were pretty excited so we jumped in the jeep and headed down the hill. Here's a picture of the jeep at the house location. The house will actually be about 10' lower once the pad excavation is complete.
Sorry blog readers, I put us first today and completely forgot to get better pictures to post. We had been down on our little trails so many times in the past eight months with trees extending over our view. This was our first time seeing a wider angle at house level, with a wider view still to come (210 degree view). We were also busy with the GPS confirming excavation areas and marking other points.
Denise recorded a video of us driving down the road and turning left on our driveway to the house location. The driveway and road are still in the rough cut stage so don't be too alarmed when you see it. It will be far different when we're done. The switchback from the road to the driveway will also be changed so you'll make it in one turn with most vehicles. larger trucks, including concrete trucks will pull past the driveway and back down. When we reach the bottom you're facing West. The tree's are still high but as we dig down those will be removed so you'll see Hams Bluff on the West end, and Puerto Rico. The video took a long time to upload so in the future I'll probably stick to pictures.
Christmas time brings a larger number of cruise ships to St Thomas, 34 miles to the north. Every night we see the bright lights of the ships sailing away. I've tried to get some pictures but it's too dark.
That's all for today. We hope tomorrows excavation will be as smooth.
Kevin & Denise
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