Saturday, May 31, 2008

David's Mad May Shopping Spree

I always thought I was pretty good at spending money , but this boy puts me to shame.In the last month he has acquired:
-a flat-bed one ton truck
-a forklift
-massive piles of wood for docks and decking
-a huge8500 watts/8.6kw generater/welding machine with a nice utility trailer
-a 40ft by 40ft barge
-a 2 story steel building to put on the barge
-100 feet of concrete breakwater

And now he is looking at buying a spudbarge ( for pile-driving) and a link-belt cable crane with a clamshell bucket for dredging . It will go on the 40ftx40ft barge and will be capable of earning a hundred thousand dollars a day on the river, whoohoo!Hope he takes me shopping!

He also just got a call from the guy that wants to give him free mobile homes and told him he has another 14 for him, that makes 24 in total, I see a city on the river in the near future!

The truck broke down the second time they drove it, so they used the forklift to push it back into the yard (it came in handy already!)A universal joint was replaced and a tuneup done on the truck.A clogged fuel line was discovered and repaired and its running well now.

It took 3 days of trying for them to get the 40x40 barge and the cement breakwaters here. They would go out to the mouth of the river and wait but the sea swells were so high they were swallowing the boat in the troughs.On the third night, things finally calmed down enough for them to go and get them.They left here at 3 in the afternoon and got back at 7 the next morning. Even with two tug boats they could'nt fight the freshet enough to move it all at once, so the docks were brought in first and the next night the Green Hornet brought in the barge.

When they were bringing in the docks, one was inadvertently cut completely loose and went swirling downstream in the raging freshet. The tugs quickly manovered into place and caught it between them and pushed it back to the house were it was securely moored.It was amazing to watch those tugs dance that dock back into place, I had no idea they were so nimble. They concrete docks will come in very handy at the new marina to protect us from boat wake.

The deck on the barge was in quite bad shape so David has hired a crew to strip off the old wood and lay down new wood.Its a huge job, they are about a third the way done now.

The generator/welder was taken off the utility trailer and will be installed in one of the containers here on the property. David is going to turn the container into a toolshop/welding shop. The trailer was hoisted by forklift and put on top of a container to keep the driveway clear.What a fun toy a forklift is, I even learned how to drive it. Never know when that will come in handy!

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