Finished driveway (we hope!)

 While talking to the excavator's young employee/apprentice(?) one day, I commented that I had not imagined that the driveway would be such a process. His response- "Neither did we!" Apparently this was as much of a frustration for them as it was for us. At this point I'm really hoping that the contract we signed with them was an agreed-on final price, not an estimate. I'm sure there was much more gravel, sand and clay carted in, and time spent on moving it all around, than was initially estimated.

 After a summer of drought, the rain returned the week after we broke ground. When we finally got rain, the ruts made by the trucks filled with water that had nowhere to drain to. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of the driveway at it's worst, but trust me, it was a mess! The clay holds water like a bowl; you can add more sand and gravel, but it stays loose and just squishes under any pressure. Rain every few days made it impossible for it to dry out enough to solidify. The last couple weeks have been dryer, and the rains lighter so it finally dried out and they brought in more sand and gravel. Yesterday they did the final grading and packing. Only one more day of heavy loads still ahead (the cement for the slabs) and then everything else will be much more driveway-friendly. 

After all the mess and stress and fuss, the end result is pretty nice!

As an indication of the amount of additional sand and gravel brought in, before the trucks did so much damage, the front edge of the tree patch straight ahead (below) was about a foot higher than the driveway. Now they are even. 

They packed in the driveway up against the house all the way across the front face, including areas where I expected I would put some flower beds. Given how much trouble they've had, I don't blame them for making it all as solid as possible, and this was a factor never discussed. I expect there will be raised beds in some of these areas in years to come. 

Minor mishap

This spring, Sid bought a hammock swing for me and hung it in our campsite downhill from the house. It has gotten a LOT of use as my favorite resting and relaxing spot. When Virginia brings the kids out, it's also Sami's favorite spot. Take note that it is hung from a tree, with a rope. 

The hanging of it is worthy of note. It's the only tree in close proximity that had any chance of being suitable for a swing. It took Sid many attempts to get the rope over the branch, which is about 20 feet up. The height gives it a lovely motion in use, and I can also feel the sway of the tree in the wind. 

However, swings on ropes on trees eventually wear through the rope. 

This was, without a doubt, the most sudden change of position I have ever experienced! One second I was enjoying my book, and next thing I knew I was on the ground! On the one hand, I was glad none of the workers on site witnessed my sudden fall from grace; on the other hand, it would have been nice to get a little attention out of the crash! Hard packed dirt is NOT a soft landing, and I lay still for a minute or so before moving. It took a moment to get oriented to what had happened and assess potential injury. 

A solid landing on one's tush results in a solid jolt all the way up the spine. By evening I was feeling it all the way up in my neck, and to a lesser degree in the middle of my back. Also a very tender seat. Before bed I took a moment to hang on the pull-up bar, thinking my own body weight might decompress my spine. I immediately felt multiple vertebrae pop as it stretched out. 

The following day I was scheduled to babysit the grandkids all day and evening. A little soreness and less tolerance for playing on the floor, but not too bad. I did call and make an appointment with the chiropractor for the the next day. And hung from the bar again, with more back-popping as a result. 

At the chiro, he adjusted my back, neck and hips. The neck definitely was out of whack and popped loudly when adjusted. By the time I got home it was feeling noticeably better. I told him I had been hanging from the bar and he said I probably saved myself from a week of back pain. Heat to be applied when possible for a few days and a follow-up next week. 

Sid got my swing re-hung while I was at Virginia's babysitting, and while I trust him, I'm not so sure I trust the rope! I had some trepidation while sitting in it today.  

Plumbing rough-in

 With the house back-filled, the next step was the rough-in of the plumbing. The plumbing company is a 3rd generation family business, with the 4th generation in training. Very nice young men. Obviously a family that believes in bringing the kids up right. 

The nice flat sand-covered-with-gravel bed of the house was dug up, stirred up and trenched to place the sewer pipes. All the wall positions were marked out on the sides of the foundations to provide the measurement reference points, and all the stacks, water "pipes"- actually hoses - laid out to the main connection point for each room needing water. 

A few days later, after the excavators came back to finish backfilling the workshop, the piping was covered with another layer of sand and all was tamped down nice and flat and smooth. 

Backfilling

These pictures from Sept 16th. 

Oh, no! There's a bobcat in my house!

With the forms removed, the trenches had to be backfilled and packed. Use was made of the piles of clay around the site, and loads of sand brought in and dumped into the interior. Three machines on the site for this day, and this was a rare sighting of all three in close proximity. They do a pretty complicated, well-choreographed dance around the site as they all do what needs doing without getting in each other's way. 

This tool is a mini-roller for packing the dirt into the trenches. The tractor drove in close to the house and the articulated arm is flexible enough to be positioned into the trenches and rolled back and forth. 

 Many loads of sand and gravel were brought in, but with the driveway still unstable, there was also a lot of scurrying around by the bobcat trying to keep up with smoothing out the ruts. At one point, the dump truck got too far over near the edge of the driveway and sunk into the softer dirt up to his axles. 

His load had to be dumped there to lighten him up, and the excavator came to the rescue. Must not be too uncommon of an event as the truck has a tow-strap handy, and a massive hitch point on the front bumper to attach it to. That's the biggest tow strap I've ever seen!

By the end of the day the house was backfilled and smoothed, but the shop was not. They also got a start on the final grading for the yard in general, and worked on distributing the extra clay out in the field where they've been staging equipment. 

Longest Month Ever!

 This picture is two days after the previous post, Aug, 18th. The footings for the house were poured, but not the shop. Rebar was installed to support and attach the foundation walls. 

The pumper truck was cool. The back end is loaded with wet cement, and it's pumped through the arm/hose to be put where its needed. The driver has a remote control attached to his belt and he walks around the site as the cement guys fill the forms, making adjustments to the flow and the arm position as needed. Not much different than filling buckets with a water hose. Sid said it sure beats using a wheelbarrow as he did years ago! 

Virginia brought the kids out, and I brought my mom, so they could all see the progress. Erin in particular thought the excavator is cool. Sid has corrected me several times that it is NOT a backhoe! Apparently it's only a backhoe when there is also a front loader. 

The shop did not have footers yet, so we put the kids in the trenches to run around. They had fun down there for much longer than I expected. The trenches brought to my mind the scene in "The Silver Chair" (Chronicles of Narnia) when they found the trenches in the hillside that later turned out to be letters carved into the ground. 

Not easy to get a good shot of a moving object. Sami's favorite activity of the day was spinning in my hammock chair. LOTS of spinning! I didn't get a picture of Erin's fun, but Sid taught him to use a thick stick to smash large clods of clay. What's better fun for a 3yo boy than smashing things with permission?

We don't know why our site went un-worked-on for several days, but before the crews came back, it rained. A lot. A whole summer of drought, but we dig the trenches and they get turned into wading pools. Know what? Water does not quickly drain out when the ground is solid, well-packed clay. 

On the bright side, the rain also got our water tanks half-full. Now, a couple more storms later, they are full to the brim.

One day while checking on the water level in the trenches, I came across this lady crossing my trail. Apparently she's an "oil beetle". So named because if you upset them they discharge an oil that will burn your skin. This particular one has a greatly extended abdomen full of eggs; she's about 1.5" long overall. They also come in green and purple, so I'd love to see those too! Definitely one of the prettiest bugs I've ever seen!

After weeks of waiting, the ground finally dried out enough to get trucks back onto our site. Last Thursday, Sept 9th, the shop footings finally got poured and the forms were set up for the house foundation walls. We found this part to be interesting. The forms are huge metal "boards", mostly in 3ft widths but also 1ft, 6in, and 2in, to ultimately get the needed distances. They are held together by large nail-like connectors that fit into 1" holes on the edges. Two walls made the inner and outer sides for each poured foundation wall, and the thickness of the foundation was kept consistent by thin slips of metal held by the connectors and between the individual "boards". They had notches in the middles to hold the re-bar inside the cement. Brackets attached around the outside hold boards that do dual duty as stability to keep the wall  straight, and provide a ledge for the workers to stand on as they fill the forms with cement. The places where the water pipes will pass into the house were held open by large pipes placed under the footings which the water hoses/pipes will easily pass through. 

As of Friday the 10th, the forms were set for the entire house and most of the shop. Today when I arrived at lunch time, this was the view from the campsite. 

The workers were finishing up pouring the walls of the shop, and they completed the house by the end of the workday. There were gaps left in the upper foot of the walls for the garage doors and service door. The long braces such as seen here at the upper center of the pic brace the walls into the proper, straight, position. 

This is a small example of heavy trucks vs. new driveway. This is AFTER repair work and additional gravel, and just from one visit by one truck. While we waited through the rainy days, the hilltop was a major mess, with deep ruts and puddles that wouldn't drain. Today, one of the excavator's crew was there with a skid-steer, keeping the driveway groomed and cleaning it all up at the end of the day. I asked him how all the movement and mixing of the clay and gravel would effect the finished driveway, and he assured me that in the long run it will make the driveway firmer. He also told me they would be doing the back-fill on Friday, most likely. Altogether, an entire month between the digging of the footings to the backfill, which was only about 6 days of actual work.