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How To Operate An Excavator! | Listen To Your Horse
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How To Operate An Excavator!

Have you ever watched guys working on your ranch or farm and wished you knew how to operate that machinery? Every year when a guy comes to dig out the manure pit, or spread gravel, I wish I knew how to drive the excavator, Bobcat, backhoe, etc.

Well today my dream came true as my new buddy Mitchell asked me if I wanted to learn how to operate his excavator – yeehaw! Although I didn’t do much with it, it was enough to realize that driving this machine is almost like a dance, where the ‘limbs’ are an extension of your own body. And you seek to reach, curl, spin, extend, rise and lower with grace and fluidity.

And who is Mitchell? You might ask… Well, do you remember when the 3 lads – Jax, Montaro and Juno – took off down the main road, crossed a 5-lane highway and spent the night on someone else’s land? And that person finished fencing the fourth side of his field by flashlight, and then got up at 11pm because he couldn’t sleep from worrying that they might jump the shorter fence along the highway, so he and his new wife put in posts and a line of barbwire along the top of the fence, in the middle of the night? Yes, that’s Mitchell. The horses found him for us, and sweet Jesus, did they choose well!

Mitchell says that driving a Bobcat is way easier than an excavator… I’m looking forward to that next and feeling very grateful that he is such a great teacher 🙂 Watch this space…

How To Operate An Excavator!

8 thoughts on “How To Operate An Excavator!

  • June 23, 2019 at 12:22 am
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    You go girl! I would love to have a crack at a bobcat too! Yes it does require quite alot of skill and coordination. I had a go with a huge excavator years ago when my hubby at the time and I were building a house. Not as easy as it looks.
    Wow! what a gem to have come across Mitchell and his wife. How kind to have fenced by flashlight! Awesome! Bless their hearts.

    Reply
    • June 25, 2019 at 11:18 pm
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      Yes, every time I see/interact with him, I marvel at who the horses brought us!

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  • June 23, 2019 at 5:57 am
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    I grew up a huge tomboy and always liked to learn to drive anything I could! Boats, dirt bikes, street bikes, huge lifted trucks, scooters, go carts, very long RVs w trailers and the farmer that lived down the road from us back in Oakley…taught me to drive the harrow bed truck (hay picker upper truck) that was really cool …but very intimidating! I did get sort of good by the end of that hay season but was still always very worried I would mess up! My husband has taught me to drive the forklift and get deliveries when he is not home off the semis that bring us fiberglass supplies…that’s always a bit nerve racking as it’s an old machine and I can barely reach the pedals… as the seat doesn’t really move! Our tractor is more modern so pretty basic but still takes fluidity to really accomplish a detailed task! My sons best friend has a couple mini xs like you were driving and you described it well…it takes coordination and fluidity to accomplish tasks…and they are fun…until you do it all day everyday for a living! But I So love that the horses found you a teacher and a new friend…they did the same for me with the ol farmer friend at our old location! Not in the dramatic fashion yours did…but gave me reason to get to know him…and he is like family now! With the hugest generous spirit! Us women can rock it all…just need to be given the opportunity to learn! ✌🏼❤️🐴

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    • June 25, 2019 at 11:21 pm
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      That’s awesome Michelle! Mitchell’s assistant is this tiny gal who also can’t reach the pedals of the bobcat – she has to push them with her toes! And lucky you to have your own tractor – someday…. 🙂

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  • June 23, 2019 at 11:51 am
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    wow good on you Jini,!! your friend Mitchell is a wonderful Human Being! it’s super empowering feeling and soooo much fun to move big machinery around isn’t it? I just LOVEd operating BIG machine things and BIG trucks in younger years . mucking about with cars , dis- and re-assembling carburetors and stuff, grease-monkeying, ski-teching, bike mechanic-ing, chainsaws, snow-cat-groomers.. ski-lifts… and then suddenly , my body didn;’t love it any more. but wow i felt really dilettante carrying nothing but a quarter for a phone call if i got a flat on the super skinny road bike out in the middle of who knows where. , or else have to stick the great big thumb to hitchhike home. in massage college in downtown Van., the Expo 86 site was being built adjacently, so I turned my desk to watch longingly thru the windows at the machines, i could see inside the operators cab, watching levers pulling, reaching, digging and excavating and earth-moving. anything to get away from the monotonous drone of the anatomy instructor lecturing straight from the textbooks. still wonder if I made the right choice of massage over machine operator. … but when the massage career abruptly ended,,, lo and behold, the opening to live on a huge ranch with horses and cows miraculously arrived… and fun began again. i didn’t admit to machine operating experience, i just wanted to live and breathe animals, avoid humanity, and ride like the wind, often alone, in the beauty full meadows of Boundary Country Monashees. i so admire the many competent, confident, wombyn i meet and see flourishing in the ‘trades’ now. You rock, !! my life has become much more soft and sedate in this new chapter, I’m going out to snip blossoming hypericum flowers now, dropping them in oil and tucking the jar away for a few weeks till it’s an lovely magenta color. yarrow flowers are infusing themselves into brandy/vodka, Daisy flowers have made lovely bruise-relieving poutices, fever-few flowers a lovely headache relieving tea., and lavender flowers go into almost everything. ….. aahhhhh the winds of change, the world shines all about us,, loving the Light we just Are. xoxoxoxo love to you and alll

    Reply
    • June 25, 2019 at 11:28 pm
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      Wonderful stories Sheila! Thanks so much for sharing and I’m not surprised you had such a well-rounded, capable past. LOVE that you’re sinking into this next phase of life with so much enjoyment.

      My hay grower’s daughters are both in the trades – one is a welder and the other a carpenter. Mitchell says that all the women he’s taught have learned faster then the men. He says the men have this ‘macho thing’ that gets in the way of learning.

      Reply
  • June 23, 2019 at 1:42 pm
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    Wow!! Looks like a ton of fun!

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    • June 25, 2019 at 11:28 pm
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      A TON of fun – I highly recommend it!

      Reply

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