BUILD SITE

bucket

track hoe

another gravel pile. initially, they planned to cover the entire area in gravel. 

gravel pile.  

a small crew of three guys.  this is one of them.

just started raining again.  end of the day in early september

repairs

one of the guys working on the earth removal

i believe they dug down 45 feet through a hill in order to make this whole six acres flat.  normally they'd expect to hit wet earth anywhere from 3-15 feet below ground level. these guys found a rare patch of mud about forty feet down. so at the end of august and beginning of september they spent a number of days tilling the ground and waiting for sun to dry out the land.

from the top of the hill looking down on the site.  

my friend had been spending so much in rent each month on this heavy equipment he just went ahead and bought all of it.  it's like a half dozen jungle gyms out there.

detail section of a hillside the ground clearing crew had been working on.  

in it's initial phase the project will occupy the flattened six or so acres behind me down at the bottom of a hill.  looking north, this photo is of the untouched and remaining 20 acres.

a dried clump of palouse dirt.  it used to be mud and was deposited in this very spot by one of the caterpillars used to move dirt around at the build site.  

it's great to watch the build site itself change, but largely i like to shoot the equipment.  

a close friend took this land over in july near where i live in order to build a bunch of warehouses.  he asked me to document the process.  there was an old chicken coop on the property that has since been torn down.