Regrading the WORST yard I've seen. day1

You don't need to work out at the gym. Just come to my house. Move on a hand. Yeah. I can't get this thing off the right angle. I know. All right. Let's see what Danny's made for us today, guys. Brand new rock bucket. We're going to be putting this to a brutal, brutal test on the job site, but we got to get it there first. So, right now we're I'm trying to hook it with the side of the bucket. I want to pull it off the trailer cuz we've got to get all of the attachments out to the job site and a skid loader. But, we got to get the loader there first so that we can unload them off the trailer. And this isn't working. This just isn't working. I was trying to grab it with the side. So, that fender is in the way. The trailer fender is in the way. And I'm trying to be quiet cuz it's like 6:00 in the morning. I really do need to disconnect the backup alarm on this skid motor. So, I'm pulling the the toggles in, the levers in just to help me get tighter into it. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Ah. There we go. There we go. There we go. Open them up. I can bury it in. That's what I was trying to do the first time. Just grab it enough so I can get it to the back so I can thenoop yank it off the trailer. That's perfect way to treat a brand new bucket. I haven't even used it yet. [Music] Bad start. Easy fix. What's going on? We haven't even got to the job site yet. Glad we kind of tested this thing out. When we get out to the site, we should test the other one out, too. Okay. Because we got a definite leaker there. Yes. Yes. So, that won't be the first one to pop a leak. I mean, that was the first one to pop a leak, but it won't be the last one. Pop the guard off, and we'll tighten up that bolt. And then uh when we get inside that's the hydra rake or the power rake. So this is the virgin run of this rock bucket. I guess that's what you call it. A a brush bucket. I'm going to grab some zip ties while you work on this. Okay. We definitely have a lot of extra hose and it's loose like this because it allows for the whole the whole hose system to slide inside of there. But look how much extra we got. I'm going to try to figure out a way to secure that. Yeah, I didn't quite do that the way I wanted it to. We don't want all that hose hanging. I need a hose keeper. And I thought there was going to be one on the bucket because I don't I was hoping there was going to be one on the bucket because I don't have a good one on the machine. And what a hose keeper does is just a spot where you can line up all of your hoses and keep them all tidy. Do give her one more test run, will you? [Music] There we go. Perfect. I really need to get that hose. I just got to get these hoses secured somehow. Yeah, I don't want that flopping. So, we get the cat loader. So, what you're going to see this this job site is a complete disaster. which makes it really fun. Those ramps are so light. They feel like they're going to they're so light they feel like they're going to break. But that's aluminum for you. So, the CAT skid loader has what I call a triple rail system. That's probably not the tech right technical term for it, but what that does is it gives me a lot more confidence on the sides of hills. And you're going to see I'm going to need it. So, let's just go uh grab the equipment off your trailer and See how big that is? That's a power rake, but just the actual rake itself is 8 foot. And by the time you add the gear box on the side and then the bracket on the other side, this thing is like 9 foot wide, which means it's not going to easily fit on the front of a trailer without fan dangling. And it's a heavy unit. So, the only two pieces of equipment we had that could handle it is this cat. This is a 259D. The stickers are off because the stickers got beat. Whoever had it before me took this through brush, which is fine cuz I mean, we do the same thing with it. Ripped all the stickers off. But the only two skids we have that can really handle this is the Cat 259D and the new ASV. And this is uh this one is best optimized with high flow. [Music] Holy These are heavy duty. Yeah, they don't mess around, man. Holy. This is the heaviest duty one you make. See, this is the first test run of both of these. So, I always like to just give them a test run before we actually put them to work. Rightfully so. I always find leaky somethings on them. I just always seem to except this thing. Nothing. See, right. So, that has an 8 in roller on it. Most of them have a 6-in roller. Just the increase in the diameter of the roller increases the speed, but since it's high flow, it's going to be it's going to move pretty fast. [Music] Even if this one was leaking, I wouldn't have the tools for it. They're so big. All right, we're going to go drop this in the front yard. Yep. I never anticipated spending an entire day just attempting to do the rough grading, just attempting to do the preparation. what I found out after we got started. And I I should probably save this for the walkth through. Hopefully that's coming up here in just a moment. I'm not going to save it for the walkthrough. 43 trees came down out of this lot before we got there. And then they ground the stumps just below grade. So as I'm walking through, I'm getting this weird spidey sense that there's more buried. Hence, see this whole grade here? Totally wrong. Everything kicks right into the garage. Look at that's like feet higher. So, those trees were supposed to be removed before we got here so I could take out this whole hill and transfer it to the other side of the yard. So, I don't know if they've changed their mind or if they want me to push them trees over with a skid loader and take them out. So, they were supposed to have a tree guy coming out, but they can't get anybody to come out and do anything out here. you know, there's just no service. So, I got to go through the site. I got to grab all the big rocks like that. I can't get too close to that foundation wall cuz that's going to that'll blow it out even with a track machine. But you can see how everything just kicks right to it. But that's not even the worst part. The backyard is where the grades really get won. They do. We come back here. Look at that. Everything goes right into the house. I don't know how the they got how how the building the builder the city allowed the builder to to go with a grade like this. So, I got to be fixing all that. Mhm. So, you'll probably be building a wall out here, Alex. Okay. What's that? You'll probably be building a wall out here eventually. I want to get all the grades fixed first before we start worrying about walls. So, this is where that rock bucket come will come in handy all through here. And then as we look up the hill, look at everything right into the back. So, we'll we're going to try to give them some breathing room out here. See what we can do for them. Their property line ends back right back there. So, we don't have a whole lot of forgiveness on the back property line and we don't have a whole lot of forgiveness on the side property line because we also are kind of short on that. So, you look, we got all this going on. big holes, ruts, tree stumps that are buried, slew of rock just kind of placed wherever. So, we'll come in here. We got a level, grade, cut, fill, move dirt. Let's just get started. See you, Alex. All right, I think the first thing we're going to do is toss the rock bucket on and start sorting through the site. Get the big stuff that we want to save cleared, the stuff that we're going to toss in a different pile, and then we'll focus on dirt after that. [Music] Me and the kitty cat get to bond for the next three and a half days. And we bond like my butt bonded right into that seat more than once. I had a couple more than a few close calls that nasty first hill. Pure sand. Pure sand. No binder. So your ground just moves underneath you, which is no big deal when you're level, but when you're at an angle and that foundation wall, that's what kind of freaks me out a titch, that foundation wall. So she's tight. So right now, I'm just checking to make sure it's tight. I don't have the actual clamps hooked up yet. And I can't I don't want to put it all the way down cuz my I got my couplers there. Watch my hat. My hat has a transformation on this job site. [Music] I got the 3M work tunes rocking. I So, uh, who sent me? Oh, is Tunes sent me a pair of their stuff? And I think if you type in like dirt monkey, you can still get like 10% off. These are the best if you like to have something stuck into your head. It doesn't get better than these, but I don't like stuff stuck in my head. I'll take head cans. Go on the outside any day of the week. So, first off, we're going to be grabbing rock. I had to turn this down a titch. That music's kind of loud. [Music] I kind of like that. that I can just shake the dirt out. Just really lets me clean the rocks. Uh this is this bucket is going to be it's going to really help our business. We're going to use it a lot. Let me just say that. Not just on this job site, but like in general, this thing's going to be used on our demolition sites. I mean, it's just a big giant flipping rake your skid loader. And all of the bigger rock I'm saving because he can reuse that to build boulder walls. So I figure I'd sort it, shank the dirt out of it, and stockpile it over there. The customer, which you'll see eventually, he's got plans for this rock. So my plan is to get it out of my work zone. So, the overall scope of work on this job was come in, we're just going to finish grade this thing. And um then we're going to build retaining walls and do whatever we had to do to correct the grade. Except I changed the plan partway through the job. So, this rod bucket is from stoutbuckets.com. They do have free shipping. So, if you guys end up buying one just on the dirt monkey sent you, it won't get you anything. It's just where I got mine from. And um it's actually so heavy duty. Um I mean, just you look at the beef on this bucket. That's why I bought it cuz I know we're going to be banging the heck out of this thing before this job is done. We're gonna really torque this bucket down big time. [Music] All right. So, what I'm doing right here is I'm going through the site and I'm just scraping all the top sticks off, all the stuff. Um, I'm going to sort I'm going to get all the big nasty stuff kind of just cleaned off from the site. I don't mind having some of it in there. Actually, I I I kind of want to mix some of the sticks into the soil, but at this stage, I'm not ready to start thinking about contouring. I'm just in the zone of get the sight clear, get everything. How does this happen? I broke my That's the magnet mount for my camera I had on the ski motor. I snapped that thing. I've lost that so many times. So, the c the lost which sucks. Same GoPro I lost. I lose that GoPro everywhere. Okay, that's some good luck, you guys. Check it out. I found it. Look at it. It was under the dirt, under that rock over there. Can't believe I found it. Look at this. It snapped right off. I found it right under there. Can't believe I found it. This thing is like so lucky. I'm just so lucky. All right, let's move this. Let's move over to another spot, though. All right, right here. All utilities. I can't see all them flags. All of those flags are marking either cable, phone, or buried electric lines right there. So, what I'm doing is I'm just I'm literally just taking my hand like I'm taking my hand just just massaging the sticks off from it. You see that? I'm not taking any dirt, nothing. just gently combing the debris off because if I even go a hair down, I'm going to tear one of those lines off. My mom is up for 1500 last night. Father was a drinker back in the day he poured out. I think I was listening to a little Aaron Lewis right there. If you're wondering why my uh headphones have the red tape on the in the middle with the pink dots, it's cuz I got sick of everybody taking my headphones. And so I put the most obnoxious duct tape I could on them. That way I can spot them and nobody can say that they're theirs. My head can just keep disappearing all the time. Did I lose that GoPro again? I just got a nice little surprise. A stick wanted to come and visit me. This right up all the way into the back of the cab. That was so close. Oh, it just popped right out of [Music] [Laughter] Oh, the things I don't tell my wife. That's the fun part about construction. You always have stories to tell. Oh, so many so many close calls. I guess that's one thing about construction. You always have a story to tell. Mhm. All right, let's keep grading. Let's get this grade knocked out. So, we got to get it cleaned up so that we can Oh, I think I know what's going to happen here. I think I know. This is a nasty one. First of many. I don't know if we're going to see them all come out, but this is the first of many. So, uh, the way you take a stump out like this, the way I take a stump out like this is, uh, pretty simple. First, I want to locate it. So, I'm using the tines to kind of feel it, but a stump has feeder roots and support roots. Of course, depending on the tree. If it's a pine tree, it really doesn't have a whole lot of support roots. They're pretty weak. Uh, but an oak tree or maple or one of those other trees, massive support roots. Some of them go straight down on some species of trees and others go out, right? And so what I'm out what I always do is I always search for them. They're usually the big the big like armsized root and you'll you'll locate your central stump and then it'll have the support roots going out. So you don't worry about concentrating on the stump. You go around the stump and you start so you start popping those support roots out. And once you get all those support roots popped out, then you can flip the stump up and over. See, I'm not even interested in tackling the main stump. I just want to get to the sides at this point. I figured we were going to have, you know, a plethora of little tiny stuff, little little dinky things. Hence the rock bucket. Yeah. Comb through there. Get them all out. But we've got some We got a few big dogs in here as well. [Music] So you can see how far away from the main central core cuz the central core is like right in front of me. So you can see how far away from it I start working to work my way into that side. That's what's worked for me when I use a piece of equipment like that. There's other guys got other techniques and they probably work just fine. [Music] So now I got a now I got a support group on that side that I want to try to get through. Should probably move that way just to tap this with the bucket. Yep. Yep. Yep. Get that bucket. Boom. Use the weight of the machine. Get that bucket down. Use the weight of the machine. Use the side of the bucket to slice right through it like a knife. Double check. See how you're doing. Yeah, there's another support room. This one had a lot of support. There we go. There we go. Come on. Curling. Curl it. [Music] Come on. Curl it. Ah, she won't curl. See that? Maybe if I get them a little tighter. Oh, here we go. [Music] [Applause] had no clue that was in there. Neither Tim nor I. And they never told us that there was all these stumps in there. Figured there was going to be some, but that's a bit bigger than us again, I guess. So, this cat has about a,000 hours on it. In the summertime, we put dirt tracks on. So, these were the tracks that came with the machine. In the winter time, I switch them over and I use a zigzag pattern track and it just turns it into a snowmoving monster. Uh what I'm trying to do right now is get the dirt off from the stump cuz where we take stumps, you can't have dirt on them. They won't take them otherwise. I don't know what I'm looking at. Oh, I was trying to get the stump to flop back in the bucket just a titch more so I could get it secured a little bit more. Now, see all them little sticks? Those don't bother me so much. I don't really like them, but they're not the end of the world to leave some of those in there. I had no idea that was down there. [Music] There was another one. That one wasn't so hard though. There's another one down there though coming up. I don't know if I got it filmed or not or if it got included. Super sandy. So, as soon as I started to break through, I had the top soil that was there was a good mixture um of just organic material that had decomposed over the years, which created enough of a binder to just allow me to kind of float over the top. But you're going to see pretty quick. I'm going to break through it. And when I break through it, she's going to start really moving. She gets it. She gets fun. So, there's a stump right down there. So, what I'm doing right now is I got to get all of the soil. I'm starting to move through the mass excavation, but with the rock bucket. And I'm doing it with the rock bucket because there I just pulled another stump out. So, it's not really the the best way to do it, but what I'm doing is I'm pushing down the slope. And every time I push down the slope, I'm just feeling with my forks for stuff I don't want. And then if I've got a good run of dirt, I just let the whole thing fill up with dirt. And I can still move a lot of soil with this thing. Even though I'm using a rock bucket, I'm moving a lot of dirt with it with no issues. You see that pink flag on that tree? I think I bumped the camera and fixed it with the skid loader. That pink flag tree is supposed to have been gone, but the tree company didn't show up. The rest of the trees, there's two other trees. The two far two trees that side come out. There's It's actually two. There's They look like one tree, but there two. I'm going I was going in between them there just a second ago. Um the other trees stay, but what we're going to do right now is we're going to grade around them as if they're coming out. So, we're going to end up burying the roots on those trees and knowing that they're not supposed to be there anyway. So, when the tree company comes out, they'll take them down. Oh. Uh, the grading plan is as follows. What I want to do is get all the water to come away from the back of the house. I want it to go down a swale cuz I can't make it go all the way to the side of the house because the sideyard is way too high. And so I want to create a swale and then get the water. I can't dump it on the neighbors. So I get it want to get it come around and then straight down. All right. So we want to take this tree out, but we don't want to hit that oak right there. And of course, we don't want to hit the house. So don't worry, I'm not running the chainsaw. Now I got to be careful cuz as I push I don't want the back end of the tree and I'm kind This is in m going in my mind. I don't want that back end of that tree to pop straight up and into the cap. So, as I push, I'm watching that bottom to see if I'm going to get this sort of a movement. So, I'm concentrating on where the top's going to go, but also where that bottom half is going to go, which would be on on me. But it's sandy soil. See how sandy that soil is? If that was a clay soil or a hard pack soil, there's just no way. [Music] That kitty cat's got some good power. 74 horsepower, but just such a smooth machine. So well balanced. The controls are very intuitive. [Music] I got to be careful. That little oak is right there. So, I'm going to grab this. try to lift it away from that oak cuz some of the branches were this camera angle doesn't quite get that. What I want to do is just set it right into the driveway so we can cut it off. Longer videos, some of you guys asked for them. Tell me if you like them. And if you don't, you're not going to hurt my feelings. I'm trying to make stuff for you guys. Got to get that rock bucket under there one time. I got to get up. Flipped up. Up. There we go. Two more…