Our simple driveway fix that wasn't so simple

A couple weeks ago I was at Sams and saw a pile of ground up asphalt with a sign and a phone number on it. An asphalt company was ripping up the top layer in preperation for laying a new layer of blacktop, and they were selling what they didn't need.

Our driveway has suffered from the heavy rains we've received this year, and really needed more gravel, and the area where we park our vehicles is dirt, so we keep tracking in mud when it rains, so it could use some gravel as well.

Looking down the driveway

Looking up the driveway toward the circle

 

The circle at the top of the drive- note the boulders in the center

 

We park in that dirt area between the flagstone walkway and the woodpile

A week or so ago we finally called and made arrangements for them to deliver four truck loads of recycled asphalt. Late Thursday afternoon the first truck load was delivered and I realized we'd miscalculated. We'd planned on spreading it by hand (I've helped spread gravel in my parents' driveway, but that was with the gravel being pushed off a trailer as the trailer inched forward, and there was 5 or 6 of us helping), but the two of us spreading the gravel from the big pile next to the back door all the way down our 500 foot driveway by hand just wasn't going to be feasible.

One load of gravel

So I made some quick calls and we arranged for a Bobcat to be dropped off the next day. Shortly after that, the truck returned to drop the second load. I could tell he was having a hard time getting around the circle (it's a tight fit for anything bigger than a pickup truck), and I saw he was getting close to our well head, but I was sure he'd seen it and wouldn't hit it.

Um, yeah.

Not so much.

Next thing I know, the well head is shattering and pieces are flying all over. I ran out to inspect the damage, and that was the first the driver realized anything had happened "I didn't even see it there". I went back in and called Mr M, who was on his way home from work, then started searching online for local well drilling companies. They were all closed by then, of course, but we were able to talk to one who promised to come out first thing in the morning.

Our shattered well head.

We covered it with a blue bin to keep dirt and debris out and to increase visibility.

 

In the meantime, Mr M tried calling the asphalt company, but no one answered, so he drove down to the jobsite to see if he could catch anyone still there. The guy there tried to say that they weren't responsible for damage down to our property, and that we should have been out there directing the driver. (really??? like he'd have been able to see me???) After some back and forth (during which Mr M mentioned they should have their own spotter who's familiar with the driver and the vehicle), Mr M was able to get the price of the four loads halved, so we ended up with a really good deal on the gravel itself.

Four loads of gravel, waiting to be spread

The next morning the bobcat got dropped off right before the well drilling guys came. They dug down a foot or two, cut the cracked pipe, and used a sleeve to connect a new length of pipe to the original pipe. After fixing the wires, they put a new cap on the well, and filled the dirt back in. Less than an hour after they started, they were done. They did say that if the crack had been any lower, they would have had to pull it all apart and it would have cost a lot more because it would have taken a lot longer to fix.

The bill ended up being exactly the amount we'd gotten the gravel bill reduced by, so we broke even on that at least.

The biggest expense was definitely the bobcat. Since Mr M was out there, he also dug out the huge boulders that were in the center of the circle at the top of our driveway. This opens up the circle a lot, so it's not nearly as tight as it used to be, and provided the rock for a protective barrier around our well head. If someone takes it out again, their axle is going with it!

The new well head

Digging the rocks out took longer than planned (some of them were buried pretty deep), and we needed an extra day to finish the spreading and smoothing that needed to be done, so we kept the bobcat an extra day and Mr M took some time off work to finish the job.

No boulders left in the center of the circle

 

Our neighbors have a chainsaw and they're going to help us take out that small tree on the left side of the center of the circle.

 

LMS running down the new driveway

Looking up the driveway toward the circle

Once Mr M was done with the driveway he cleared about a third of the path through our woods- we want to put a walking trail around the outer edge of our property, through the trees, and using the bobcat definitely made the job easier (we'll do the other two thirds in a year or so). It did make the path wider than a woodland trail really needs to be, but given how allergic I am to some of the plants out here, being able to walk down the middle of a trail without touching anything is definitely a good thing for me.

LMS on the trail. This end looks the roughest and I need to fix it up some more still. The boulders on the left are the ones surrounding the well head.

 

Part of the trail through the woods

We got the trail started just in time, too. Leaves are starting to fall and will leave a nice layer on our path. One weekend soon we'll be renting a wood chipper and chipping the downed wood on our property to use as mulch on the trail. Right now it's kind of ugly, but it should look pretty good by spring.

Keeping the bobcat an extra day did increase the cost, but it was still cheaper than renting it another weekend, since they charge for pickup and delivery and it's delivered on a flat bed semi (so our truck doesn't help us on this one).

Mr M did most of the work with the bobcat, though I did a little as well- mostly so I could see how it works. LMS insisted on a turn as well and had lots of fun driving it around and moving the shovel thing up and down.

LMS ready to do some work

So, our simple 'let's fix the driveway with some gravel' ended up being not-so-simple, and more expensive than we planned, mostly because of the bobcat rental.

On the other hand, our driveway looks a lot better, our parking area looks better, our circle is much more manageable (I'm sure the UPS guy will thank us!), and we got a start on our trails through the woods. All things that needed to be done, even if we hadn't planned on doing it *right now*.

Have you had any projects take on a life of their own?