So our new shovel has finally started arriving. Here they're just putting it together. We would have gotten it a lot earlier in the year but it was at a mining convention in Las Vegas or something. Oh yeah- here it is. This one is a hydraulic shovel- more like a backhoe than anything else. Our other shovels have power cables and I spend many many hours coiling, reeling, moving and otherwise ensuring they don't get wrecked. Despite my vigilance they are still wrecked way too often. So it'll be nice having a shovel sans cable. Running it will be fun too, at least until the novelty wears off. That usually takes a couple of hours.