Golf Course Preparations Begin · · PAGE 50.

December 12, 2017:  There are a lots of photos on this page taken on December 12 as I continue my evaluation of the property lines.  This marker is at the northwest corner of the lot.  It is 100 feet from the sidewalk to the south, and 165 feet from a marker in the street just east of the lot, that marks the northeast corner of the Saint Johns River easement for the golf course drain culvert.

From the northwest corner of the lot, it is 24 feet to the cable TV amplifier in the utility easement north of the property.

One of the houses across the street recently sold.  The property was surveyed and this marker stick is directly across the street from the southwest corner of the 1351 property line.  Way back there, 174 feet from this marker stake is the cable TV amplifier pedestal box.  I placed my clip board on the property line which runs between the water meter box and a Florida Power & Light underground power cable junction vault.  It is 50 feet from this stake to my clipboard.  You can look at the sidewalk on this side of the street where it has been replaced next to another power company cable vault.

This photo looking west shows my 100-foot measuring tape from the property line seen in the photo above, AND it has my second measuring tape extended 15 feet to mark the full width of the lot at 115 feet.

Looking north from the 115 feet point seen above and at the clip board in this photo, it appears that the first concrete slab of the driveway that connects to the garage is along the line that is the west side of the Saint Johns River water management easement on the east side of the lot.  The crack between the first slab where my old Caddy is parked and the rest of the driveway to the side street appears to be on the property line.

December 14, 2017:  The clearing of trees along the open drainage ditch begins in the Saint Johns River water management easement, hereafter known by the acronym SJRWME or would you like the acronym SWAMAE?  It is easier to say (swah-may).

This view of the work being done gives a better idea of where this machine is parked to work on removing the trees at the drainage ditch.  I am standing just to the east side of the house looking northeast at the telephone line connection box by that stake with the pink ribbon.

Small trees are being removed from the west side of the ditch.

Each tree is dug up and moved out of the work area.

Each piece of a tree that is at least 40 years old is being removed from the drainage ditch.

That tree trunk was pulled down and broke near the bottom as seen here.  The operator grabs that tree trunk to move it out of the work area.

The jaws at the end of the arm grip the tree as the machine is backed away from the ditch to deposit this piece out of the work area.

The process is repeated for every piece of the tree.

The machine is moved back in position to get the last tree trunks from the tree closest to the culvert.

Each downward movement of the arm breaks the tree into manageable pieces.

We had one big limb that fell from the top of a tree onto lower limbs that could later fall to the ground any time.  The operator took it down as it was on a limb that grew to the north over the drainage canal and it too, would be coming down.

This view from standing on the culvert top wall shows the last two tree trunks to be removed.

He reaches out for the long tree limb from our tree that is out over the ditch down low.

The long tree limb broke off near the main tree trunks in the north end of the "SWAMAE" easement.  The yellow circle shows the break in the big limb with a yellow line showing were the limb reached before as seen in the photo above.  In the photo below, you can see he has already started removing the two remaining tree trunks from the ditch.

I moved to a new position on the street to show more of that last tree being removed.

More pieces are removed to allow the water to flow freely in the ditch.

This tree trunk was pushed over to the north revealing the roots.  He then grabbed and swung it around to the north of the work area.  There is only one tree stump remaining near the culvert.

The tree is put down on the bank.  He then moved his machine to get a better lifting position to move it further away from the work area.

While the operator was finishing off the last tree stump, I got my lawn waste can to pick up the debris on the yard, and to fix the DIVOT from that tree trunk that was knocked down by the storm, and finally hit the ground with some help from the machine operator.

I moved back on the road to show where the last tree trunks and most of the roots from the 40-year-old tree had been removed.  All those rocks were put in the trench to minimize erosion.  The plants that grew around those rocks also helped to hold up the sides of the ditch for the past 30 or 40 years.  I learned that when the project gets further along, the ditch will be covered up with new culverts extending from this area to one of two ponds north of this location.

Here is the view from down near Meadowbrook Road where is looks like nothing has been done up there, except there is less clutter along the banks of the ditch.

Moving closer, the sharp point of the limb that was broken off is now visible.

Here is another view of that same limb showing how much of it was cracked open.

Here is a telephoto image of the limb seen in the shadows above.

Here is a wider view of that same tree all the way to the top.

After all that work seen in the photos above, another machine operator came over with his brush remover/front end loader.  He took out the tree philodendrons that were on the north side of the property line near the northwest corner of the lot.  There were only two tree philodendrons on our side of the lot line, so I asked him if he could remove them, and he did.  The only remaining philodendrons are at the front of the house.

At the end of the day of clearing the side of the ditch, here is the pile of trees moved to the east side of the putting green north of the house.