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Cottage Magazine

One Man and Machine

By Kathy Watkins

How one man and machine can transform a treed hillside into a beautifully landscaped lot is beyond words. This type of work takes a special person and a special vision. What we saw the first time we walked this lot is nothing like the lot is today.

The clearing of our property involved Ryan working many hours on the excavator, felling trees, pulling out stumps, moving around the earth and relocating huge boulders found on the property. The removal of trees was done selectively to help ensure we would not have a tree fall on our future cabin. In wanting to maintain the beauty of the landscape we chose to keep some trees for aesthetics and privacy, but wanted the best possible exposure to view the lake. We now have large piles of lumber that we plan to mill for building our cabin.

One thing we hadn’t considered prior to having the lot excavated is where you put the debris, brush and stumps. It was a question a friend asked one day over dinner. “What will it cost you for the burning?” I looked at Rob and it was clear that was something that had never crossed either of our minds! So in addition to paying for the excavating, it’s important to budget for burning!

We were able to take advantage of burning our debris along with the debris from the road clearing. The burning process took longer than we had anticipated, as we had to wait until the summer fire ban was lifted. I thought it would take several days to burn the enormous pile of rubbish, but with the help of the excavator and fans powered by generators, the pile was diminished to nothing in no time.

Working full-time meant that my husband and I could not always be at the property when the machine was operating. We had to trust that our wishes were understood and wait in anticipation until the weekend to see the finished product. Ryan’s work has exceeded our expectations and validated our vision in seeing our little piece of heaven come together. Just as the road access had changed the ease of getting to our property, the clearing of our lot has changed the way in which we see Pitt Lake. Our picturesque view from the top of our lot looks south past Little Goose and Big Goose islands. The sun now pours in and dries up what used to be forest floor. We have seen the property cleared now through summer, fall and winter. Now into spring, we are watching the forest around us come to life with little buds, flowers and birds.

It seemed slightly overwhelming at the beginning of the project to imagine us this far ahead and clearly see what we would end up with. I cannot stress enough the importance of employing a competent and skilled machine operator with a vision to get the job done. What would have been impossible for us to do alone was made possible in a short amount of time. When building on a boat access only property, one must take advantage of machinery when it’s on the building site. The cost of barging machinery back and forth for each job would be astronomical in comparison to doing all the machine work at once. Taking advantage of this fact meant that we had a septic system to install. And luckily for us we knew just the right people to get the job done!

BEFORE...

VIEW THROUGH THE TREES

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