Pick a Pair of Backhoes -From Here to There Update

Some of my readers remember the post, From Here to There 
In that post I talked about the difficulty of reaching our second level which is the main living space from the driveway.  We always intended to create a sidewalk from the top of the driveway to the house in addition to the several existing steeper and more arduous entries.  Four years later we are finally proceeding with that project. It involves using a rock hammer on the front of a backhoe to remove a portion of the granite hillside.  Here is a photo of the site during the winter.  ( The Solar panels on the roof are designed to pre-heat the hot water.)

That tree just peeking out on the lower right will have to come out so that we can lower the hillside on the right.  Too bad since it is one our best pinion nut producers.

Construction Zone: "Hint don't leave your car parked anywhere near a backhoe!" 

Pick a pair of backhoes...bucket or hammer?

Crunching through the rock.  I love big machines!  Should I have been a boy? Well, no that is not me driving the back hoe!

Supporting the bottom of the path.  In the background you can see the water tank and the propane tank.  We have had no hot water for seven days since the line from the tank to the house was accidentally hit and the scheduled plumber has not shown up.  Yeah for a camping stove and a camping solar shower!