This past Friday, I finally fulfilled one of my dreams: to run a heavy piece of machinery.

We had an old tiered garden area built in to the side of a hill that needed to be regraded, and I wanted to smooth out our new larger gardening area as much as possible. Given the ground around here is all clay and rocks, doing it by shovel was a sure-fire way to make me gouge my eyes out. So, skid-steer to the rescue!

I started the day around 6:30AM, heading to U-Haul to rent a pickup truck. I have a small truck, but it’s nowhere near capable enough to haul a 6000lb piece of equipment around. I then headed to Home Depot, rented their smaller skid-steer (a Terex PT30, for those who care), hauled it back to our house and got to digging!

I then spent the next six hours doing my best rendition of Tim ‘The Toolman’ Taylor as I drove around our yard leveling everything in my path. It. Was. Awesome.

So, skid-steer: highly recommended. Even if you have nothing to dig or level. Just rent one and drive it around your neighborhood.