We were continuing to clear with the brush mower and loppers, while stopping periodically to survey some points to delineate where the construction fence would go. Since we were approximating where these fence points were, sometimes we were way off, and I was still trekking through the dense brush with a 12' survey rod. Sometimes a larger tree would be in the way and we would either mark points on either side of it, or skip that point and try to survey near it. These more difficult points seemed to take forever to figure out, while I was standing in the dense woods with flies and other insects buzzing in my face, not to mention the heat of the middle of summer! We were fortunate that the long weekend we happened to pick to do the most work was probably one of the coolest of the summer!
After 2 or three days of the clearing and surveying, Neal managed to go through two or three brush mowers that died. By the end of the weekend, we were stuck trimming with loppers and hauling the branches to piles. NOT ideal, or very efficient! But we managed to trim enough to get a few more points surveyed, and then started trimming a line along where the back of the construction fence would go. Here's a picture I took when Neal took off back to the starting point to get some stakes and clear the path a bit more:
Once we got the stakes in and a path cleared through the brush all the way around, we could focus more on our efforts to continue trimming and clearing brush. When we got to the point where we could hardly walk through our trimmings anymore, we rented a wood chipper.
Here's a picture of the wood chipper.
Here's a link to a video of it eating a tree: http://youtu.be/CmFG16gD1ZM
We fed the wood chipper for at least two days, which included hauling small trees and large and small limbs into a pile to feed it. Which gave rise to the question in my mind: "How much wood can a wood chipper chip?" A LOT!! And fast, too. Just gobbled them right up, whatever you could shove in there, up to about 4" in diameter.
After the brush and limbs we had cut were reduced to wood shavings, we hired a dozer to knock down the larger trees to finish clearing the area, and to make a path so that the engineering consultant could drive their core rig in to get soil samples. They would then test the soil to properly design our slab.
Here is a photo of the dozer:
Here's a link to the video of the dozer in action: http://youtu.be/IZQMUOf2IKg
And another: http://youtu.be/UoPD14qpfu8
Have you ever noticed how much this equipment resembles elephants? So large, and so powerful, but yet capable of handling things with such precision and delicacy.
Here is a photo of the drill rig that took the soil samples: 
I didn't actually see it in action, but I think it's funny that they named it "Bubba Red".
After the soil drilling was complete, we hired a guy to cut up our wood into firewood, and Neal started putting up the construction fencing. After working on it for a whole day, he came home and said "I need your help." It turns out , the wire he bought for the fence came in a giant coil, which sprung loose into a bird's nest when the bindings were cut! He had to build a box to contain the springy mess, and we had to unwind it carefully a section at a time to prevent another bird's nest. By the end of the next day, we had deemed the wire a 4,000 foot slinky that we had to straighten out! Often it kinked and twisted like a metal slinky that had gotten tangled into an impossible mess! After a few more days, we had our fence.
With only a few brush piles left, we were ready to start moving dirt for our slab!
