Here is the Inn we stayed at in Berkeley Springs.

Taking delivery of the dozer.

Dad on the (his) dozer.

My dad operating 20-ton machinery. Eeek.

I operated the backhoe.

A view from the cab of the backhoe. You can see Autumn is about a week away from peak leaf colors.

Dad and I.

Every day we stopped at Sheetz for coffee and to lunch to go.

We’ve had pretty good weather throughout…usually lows in the 40s and highs in the 60s with lots of sun.

Barbeque just down the hill from our property.

Dad standing on the dozer enjoying the view.

Dad’s always on the phone.

He got out of the dozer. Amazing.

Needed the chainsaw.

Here is MHF (Mountain Hausfrau) operating the chainsaw. I walk in front of my dad taking down the trees before he pushes the bulldozer through. The chainsaw is kicking my ass. It weighs about 30 pounds and I am weak.

Dad on the chainsaw.

Does that look safe to you?

He's smiling because he's just getting started.

Here’s my dad cutting some trees. Interesting technique there, dad…

Here’s the rain out. We got about 1/2 inch of rain. I got the backhoe stuck in about a foot of mud and it took the bulldozer to pull me out.

Is there a better way to spend your 69th birthday than Circuit City and a Walmart Supercenter if Winchester, VA? Well that’s what my dad got. We got rained out this weekend - the bulldozer is open and my dad was getting soaked, and my enclosed, heated backhoe sunk in the mud making it unusable. So off we went to Winchester. Dad’s birthday dinner was a nice meal at Tari’s, the Inn where we’re staying in Berkeley Springs. And my dad got a piece of cake. Happy Birthday, Dad, and thanks for the help…

One of the few moments my dad got out of dozer. Here he’s doubling as a rigger so I can drag trees and stumps to an area we set aside as a trash dump.

Dad roughing in the roads.

Here’s my dad pushing over a couple of small trees with the dozer. I’ll try to get a picture of how big a tree he can push over. It’s impressive.

Once the roads were roughed in, we took delivery of thirteen, 70,000 pound loads of shale…

Here I am with Skeeter, the shale delivery guy. I told him gray flannel is lame. Red is where it’s at.

Here’s the latest toy, a bobcat. It’s got some serious push. Great for spreading the shale on the roads.

It took several days to spread all the shale.

I dragged the fallen trees to a dump site we made on one end of the property.

Yeah, total nightmare. I tried to offroad it in the bobcat, cutting across the land with the hope of getting to some fallen trees to drag them out, and the rubber track came off. You can see it in the picture. Thankfully, I bought insurance. Still cost us a five hour delay. I’ve got to hand it to the rental company, Rentals Unlimited. They were on-site in an hour and we are more than an hour from their nearest office. I was impressed.

That’s Cory, the Rentals Unlimited Sales Rep. He took over the bobcat getting it out of the woods. Mr. Hotshot lost the other track on the way out of the woods. So it wasn’t just me…

These guys were great - they had to carry all their equipment about a quarter mile from their truck and they never complained.

Here we are next to one of our newly graveled roads.

We got a little light snow one morning.

My beloved white bench! Dad backed over the bench with the 20 ton dozer!

I locked the keys in the car and we were stuck up on the mountain in freezing temps waiting for a locksmith to open the car so we could go home. That was a long day.

Two and a half years ago I planted about 30 Leyland Cyprus on our land, the famous “fast growing” trees. They are supposed to be 10 feet by now. Most of them died. This one is still alive, but I think it actually shrunk.

So what did we do with all those trees? We built a trash dump and stacked the trees 20 feet high. Don’t worry, the wood isn’t going to waste. My neighbors are going to chop it up for firewood.

Here I am at the trash dump dropping off some cut trees. Dad’s got the dozer and I’m operating the backhoe.

Here’s the parking area adjacent to our building site. The cleared area on the other side of the car is where we’re going to put the cabin. Realize that all this area was wooded before. It’s was a big job clearing it out.

The car is in the same spot as above, but from here you can see the cabin location better. The cabin will be built on a wooden deck to the right of the car, on that slope.

Dad's jeans were ruined by the end of the project so we hung them in the tree and said farewell.

That’s the rental equipment truck taking the bobcat away as I was heading back to the DC area after the job. And for a guy who is used to getting 9 hours sleep per day, I’ve been operating on about 6 hours. I’m ready for some much needed sleep.