It’s a bobcat.  Having a cougar in the back yard (either a real cat or a Mrs. Robinson-esque lady) would be strange.  I much prefer the four-wheeled bobcat version we have.  A week ago, Ben brought home the bobcat from his work and started digging up the back yard.  To get the bobcat up the hill, he had to gently slope the hillside.

After an hour or so, he finally got the hillside finished and came into the yard.

Digging around, pulling the sandy paver base out was easy digging and went quickly.

Over the weekend, Ben really got to work.  All the stone retaining walls are too short/unstable/easy to break and don’t have the look we’re going for.  See what I mean?

Oh, the cross hatching you see in the picture above?  Just the window screen.  The boys and I hunkered down in the house.  Because broken bits of concrete were flying, we put pieces of foam insulation over the new windows.  How much would it suck to shatter a newly installed window?!?  So, my peeping Tom vantage points were limited, hence the screen shot.

Digging sand and dirt was the easy part.  Lifting giant slabs of concrete, not so much.

Trying to break it with a sledgehammer wasn’t working, so Ben used something with a little more muscle.  Lift…

Higher, higher, still higher.

And flip.  Broken pieces were easier to hammer to more manageable pieces.

Quitting time for Friday night.

With the fountain out-of-the-way, Ben set out to destroy the patio off the pool house.  Which included moving a giant rock.  You think I’m kidding when I say giant?  Take a look.

That is only the top part of it.  Here’s the bottom.  Yes, I was cringing and hoping it would work.  Ben is tenacious with that bobcat.  Oh boys and their toys.

Now we’ve got a giant pile of dirt.

This morning, the concrete cutter came out, cut the pool house opening, and left.  More details on that next week!

Progress, but it’s so dirty now.  Sand constantly in the house.  What does your backyard look like?  Or any other large equipment?