Hardcore lady skills!

This second house has proven to be a great opportunity for personal growth and learning.* The most recent of these skills is bobcat driving!

We have a list of project to complete before our rental inspection, and covering the dirt driveway with gravel is the most intimidating project. So we're tackling that first.

I found a neighbor with a truck to help me haul this sucker, and then got to work moving 6 yards (9 tons) of gravel.  And by "got to work," I mean "practiced driving back and forth very slowly" for a few minutes. I worked up to driving, then moving the bucket up and down. Followed by tilting the bucket. I'm not sure if it would have been comical or painful to watch; P assures me I was cute but he may be biased so I don't know if I can believe him.

I let P play with this fancy toy until he had to go to work, and then it was all me. It probably should have been about a 1 hour project, and took us about 3 hours. But now I have bobcat skills. And I met a bunch of neighbors (nothing like a lady in a bobcat to bring curious strangers over to chat). And the driveway was successfully covered with gravel.

Maybe driving a gas-powered skid steer with hydraulic lifts doesn't make me as hardcore as someone who drove a canastota wagon with a team of horses across uncharted prairie....but I think Laura would have traded her sodbusting mule for a bobcat in a heartbeat if she'd had the option!

*In other words, a major undertaking. Totally worth it, but a huge project.