Uncle Judd Drives the Big Toys

Uncle Judd is a man of multiple skills and talents.   He has developed these over the years, and collected many tools and pieces of equipment along the way.  He likes to operate his own equipment, and he is  good at it.  He also knows how to maintain and repair these big "toys" which helps to keep his costs down since heavy equipment and machinery is expensive.  Here he is driving a Gradall, which I think of as a large combination forklift and crane.  He uses it at the cabin to do various projects.

 For example, he is currently building a fountain in the center of his driveway at the cabin.  The fountain will be surrounded by huge rock slabs which will form the base.  He hauled the rock to the cabin on a large flatbed trailer.  Then he used the Gradall to lift the rock off the trailer and maneuver it into place.  Each of these pieces of rock weighs almost a ton.  That means the rock is very heavy, ninos.  You would not want this rock to fall on your foot.  Big owie.  But with the Gradall and one or two people to guide the rock into position, the job gets done and the fountain slowly forms.

Here is Uncle Judd operating the Gradall.  He is picking up the next rock to go into building the fountain.  A wide canvas belt is strapped to one of the forklift tines and then wrapped around the rock.

Here he is slowly moving the rock into position.  

You can see the canvas strapping belt here.  Uncle Judd is able to tilt the forklift tines to the left or to the right and slide them forward and backward in addition to moving them up and down.  The Gradall is a very versatile piece of equipment, especially in the hands of a skilled operator.

At last the rock is in position.  Now the workers will remove the strap and select the next large rock slab to be set in place.  Later I will show you the completed fountain with more pictures of the Gradall laying rocks to make water bowls for the fountain itself.  Meanwhile, Uncle Judd says when you come to visit next summer, we will go to the cabin with him and if you like, perhaps you can ride on the Gradall with him when he does some work.  Would you like that Weezie?  I am pretty sure Clam will want ride in the Gradall.  Let me know so I can tell Uncle Judd.