The biggest, baddest cat on the block

There is no way to say this without extra exclamation points and gratuitous capitalization - WE BOUGHT A BOBCAT!!!  Yes, it's an old model (circa 1970-something) but it's in great shape and it runs wonderfully and...oh, who am I kidding, I'd be excited about owning one even if it was a piece of junk (which it most decidedly is not). 

This all started when we decided to do the patio and yard grading ourselves (which later morphed into also doing the driveway ourselves).  We looked at renting a Bobcat - totally manageable at a few hundred dollars a weekend or several hundred per week - and then, of course, we checked out our old friend, Craigslist.  After a few weeks of browsing, we located this one, which was being sold by a guy who had done pretty much the same thing we're doing now (albeit on a much larger lot) and was finished with it.  We mulled it over, thought about how nice it would be to not be on a timeline, drove out on Saturday to see it, struck a deal, and he dropped it off this evening.  Presto, we are the proud owners of a new/old Bobcat 610!  And,  however smart (or not smart) the economics of buying a Bobcat to landscape a 7,000 sq. ft. lot may be, I'm just really, really happy to own it.  I may be a city/suburban girl now but there's something about owning farm equipment that pleases me to no end.  I'm pretty sure that Brian feels the same way because he's been driving it around out back since it arrived and is showing no sign of coming in anytime soon...

We also managed to be relatively productive around the house, finishing up some more small jobs and one big one - replacing the basement walk-out door - with pictures to follow later this week.  But without a doubt, the Bobcat is the big news of the weekend!