cycle_gator and rjwassing67, thanks for the kind words. i don't have much experience in these kinds of endeavors, so i very much pictured this thread as a 'learn from my mistakes' kind of thing. the fact that people say they are inspired by my efforts is beyond gratifying.
ok, i have now done the humble thing. now on to the victory dance
the actual victor is in the background. today my cleary salesman came out and officially staked the barn pad. there are 6 stakes that define a 30' x 48' structure with a 8' x 48' porch attached to the west wall. the maximum difference between any two stakes is 2.5 inches. according to my salesman, in his 20 years of selling cleary barns, my efforts are the second flattest of all owner prepared pads. the owner that did better than i was out a maximum of 1/2 inch, and i take my hat off to that gentleman (or lady, as the case may be). a big part of my success was my tractor, the loader, and the box blade. the box blade and the loader have been proven to be properly sized to the tractor, and the tractor has been stone reliable. it has generated enough power and traction to drag a 7' box blade through undisturbed soil with all 6 ripper tines at their lowest setting with the transmission in the middle range.
one problem that the tractor was unable to surmount was a small ridge of incipient sandstone. the cx300 loader is not designed for heavy-duty work and i have worked it very hard indeed. the 'will be sandstone some time in the future' can be crumbled in your hand if it is in small enough pieces, but a solid bank of the stuff is something else.
so, i finally bought the bigger generator than i have been thinking about for years. after looking at a variety of generators, i ended up with a yamaha ef2800i. it's an inverter, so i can power electronics and at 2800 watts can power pretty much any single tool that i could conceive of using. it worked very well.
and this blasted thing is what it powered. i rented this makita 27 lb demolition hammer from home depot. i could muster enough steam to run it for about 5 hours a day. i ended up renting it sunday and returning it, taking monday off pretty much, and then rented it again on tuesday. cleary requires a 5' flat envelope around the building perimeter to enable them to erect the building. so, my 30' wide building plus the 8' porch plus 5' on both sides means i need 48' in width. i used the demo hammer to cut the sandstone wall back enough to give me 48' and stopped. after thinking about it, i'm going to cut the wall back another couple of feet or so to ensure i have enough room to install a drainage tile. the tool does most of the work of course, but continually picking that vibrating 27 lb object up to reposition it makes me tired just thinking about it. that will wait until next week, thankyewverymuch.
and there you have it. cleary told me what they needed, and i took my little john deere and made the earth move to suit my personal requirements. the whole thing has been very satisfying, and i am quite proud of myself. this doesn't happen all that often, so i hope everyone will pardon me if this post is a little too self-congratulatory.
