Work Started on David's Studio

We started the tractor work on the spot where we're going to start building David's music studio, next door to their place on the property. This will serve as both a recording studio as well as a small apartment with an upstairs bedroom and kitchen area, eventually. We'll probably just try to get the studio part on the lower floor ready first, as they need to move David's equipment out of the new baby's bedroom in time for his/her June arrival!

Here's David, Gianni and Tato, her brother, looking on:Here's the back-hoe dragging the heaviest trunk of the Norfolk Pine away. (Note the old Mercedes is still parked in the space. We are trying to sell this oldy-but-goodie. Note also the license number on it!)
The three chunks of the tree are being taken to our neighbor Garry's place where he'll saw them up for lumber:
This big old stump was a a bunch of work to remove, but with a super strong back-hoe it was so much easier.



The tractor was able to move massive amounts of earth and level the area out, pretty much by eye.The finished cut (after 6 hours of tractor time--the minimum fee time period). We want to have the principal part of the studio well insulated from sound in the left-hand corner of the cut.

The trench for the rear retaining wall and studio wall has been cut out by the tractor (saving many man hours if we had to do it with picks and shovels).
I just can't bear to remove another tree from the site. This is a bearing Guanabana tree. The fruit is one of the tropic's most delicious, and there are a number of fruits still on the tree. Unfortunately, this tree will eventually have to go, since it falls just about where the entryway to the studio will be.
Here's a near-ripe Guanabana. It's about a foot long and weighs a few pounds. And they are yummy! (We have it wrapped in a soft net so that the wind won't blow it down before it's ready to harvest...probably next week.)