Day 1 with permits....

We were attacked at 8 am sharp.  Up the road came trucks, men with tools, and equipment.  Before we said "now wait just a minute" there was a bob cat in the back yard and some guy jackhammering the stairs.

First the lower set by the pond....

Then onto the upper set.

And everything in between...

At lunch I went out and got the last of the paperwork for the permit.  When I returned an excavator had been added to the mix and had driven up the newly formed path all the way to the building site.  They immediately went to work on taking out any and all remnants in their way.  The slab of the garden shed was taken swiftly but that retaining wall Annette and I built stood it's ground.  They had to jack hammer every steel and concrete reinforced block.  And then they found the footing.  Still in place as the sun set ;-)  A little pride in workmanship.

While the jackhammer was running on the wall the excavator started clawing at the hill.  The good news is that it is not all rock as was feared.  That said, we need a bigger excavator which will arrive tomorrow morning.  All in all a good first day.