Dirty Birds

by TheFlyingHippogriff

Pushing Forward

It's the first time we have been ahead of schedule on the canal, and the machines and their crews get a chance to rest. For many of us, we were settling into our new home in Kingstown. When we are not working, we do other activities. Gabby keeps up with her mail delivery routes, and we even play pick up games of baseball in our spare time.

One griffon that everyone knew was Gwendoline. She is Garrett's sister, and are both the same age. She owns the local tavern in Kingstown, and she is also the head cook at the canal worksite. With a golden yellow-beak with a small black tip, and fur and feathers with color of dark chocolate with black tips, she is the griffon to see for a hot meal.

"Good quality workers deserve good quality food," is what Gwendoline always says. There is nothing she nor her staff can't cook. Since we are griffons, we eat a balanced diet but protein takes up nearly half of the food on our plates. Her brown eyes would light up like Gabby's when the supply train comes in so she can organize and plan out meals.

For now, our machines have earned a rest. The month seem to go by so fast, but it was back to work. The River Guto had been dammed off to keep the worksite safe for the workers. Today was to be another blasting day. Before anything can began, odd-looking machines called crawler drills to bore holes in the rock for dynamite and blasting gel.

We use the Sandvik Dino DC400Ri or 'Sandy' as we call her. She is called on for this job. These days, we don't light fuses for the dynamite. Today, blasting is a sophisticated science. When the dynamite and blasting gel is packed in, and the warning sounds, things will go boom. Dirt, rocks, and debris will fly everywhere even from a safe distance.

When the blasting is done and the all clear sounds, we clean up the mess. That is where big machines like our front shovels, hydraulic excavators, track loaders, dump trucks, and bulldozers come in. This is what I mean when I say we work together. Mother Nature throws everything at us from snow to rain, and flooding but we keep on working.

The sky has been a deep shade of grey for a few days now, and with the clouds came the rain. It has been raining since then. There was a flood watch in effect for the area we were digging in. We moved all of our machines to higher ground just in case of a major flood before the rains came. The rain made a real mess of things on the work site.

The temporary dam on the River Guto held it's ground. It is time to work. We had to make up for the lost time due to the torrential rainfall. The rock and earth turned to sand, silt, and mud. We were not deterred. We kept the machines going to their delight, and the trains are coming and going their with railcars filled with wet overburden and mud.

"It's good to see you all working so well, Princess Luna and I have come to see the village," said Princess Celestia, I was surprised to see them, hardhats and all.

"It's good to see have the time to come visit us, your majesties," I replied, bowing out of respect.

All the workers stopped and bowed to the princesses, including the machines. I do not know if the Griffon Kingdom will ever see another king or queen in our lifetimes, yet I have seen much progress in the Griffon Kingdom. More griffons are reaching out to each other and helping each other in generosity and kindness. All it took was one griffon.

"Then let's give you a tour," said Garrett as I followed alongside him, he and I are the ones in charge of the construction while Princess Celestia and Princess Luna give us the plans and any extra details we need to know about. It warms my heart to see little fletchlings playing in the newly built playground under the watchful eyes of their mothers.

"We had a big vote among everyone in the new village, and we named the village Kingstown," explained Garrett, "we have everything we need here, I'm thinking Kingstown maybe another village for griffons outside of Griffonstone, we really need to settle in other parts of the kingdom instead of limiting ourselves to just one place," he concluded,

"What you say is true, good griffon," said Princess Luna, "it is unhealthy for one to stay confined to one place," the Princess of the Night came up to Blossom, one of our high front shovels, "I have heard about such heavy machinery in books, I never I would ever see one, I must say these machines...they have a certain grace and charm in them,"

"Why don't you come inside, and give her a whirl, Your Majesty?" offered Gabby and gave her instructions from the outside on how to operate her. Soon, Princess Luna was filling railcars like a natural to her delight. The crews watching applauded, and were thankful for the Princesses coming to visit them. Princess Celestia got to work with Laura.

Laura is one of Garrett's Lima 1850 cable shovels. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna have the most important task of being the princesses of Equestria, but even they know how to have a bit of fun even if it means getting your hooves muddy, "Thank you for having us, Good Griffon Garrett...Countess De Faucon, we'll see to it that we visit again,"

"Come by anytime you wish," I suggested to the princesses, and they left for Cantorlot. It's just not a shift without a dose of Gabby's silliness. Some of the mud is so deep and soupy you can swim in it, and that's what Gabby did. With a swan dive off Blossom's bucket and a 'splash' and 'plop' into the mud below, I couldn't help but laugh my tail off.