Driveway Work, Part 2

After a stressful week of rain and work. It looks so much better now!

 (driveway work, part 1) 

Last Saturday Mr M had gotten the root ball out of the middle of the driveway and started filling the hole, but was stopped from doing more by several rain storms.  Monday he started pushing logs around and clearing the carport site, but it was slow going due to all the wet mud and clay. The bald tires on the Bobcat meant he couldn't get traction and did lots of slipping and sliding in the wet clay. In fact, the Bobcat got stuck in the partially filled crater. We tried to pull it out with the CRV, but couldn't do it. We left it and hoped things would dry out overnight enough to get it out.

But, it rained in the morning. Again.

what our driveway looked like over the weekend

The mobile sawmill guy stopped by to look at the logs and see how much space we have, and he tried to unstick the Bobcat with his two-wheel drive truck, but he couldn't do it, either. We ended up using the RV to pull it out. The bigger engine and rear duallies did the job that the other vehicles couldn't.

Mr M called the rental place to complain about the bald tires. They sent out a tracked Bobcat for a 24-hour rental Tuesday evening, which meant there was lots of work to do in a short time. But we finally were making decent progress.

Mr M ended up having to dig out the mud from the crater and fill it with a mix of gravel and topsoil from the carport site. The clay mud was just oozing everywhere, so he dug it out and dumped it down the hill behind the RV. He eventually got the crater filled and the space fairly level.

As Mr M was spreading gravel around the driveway area, I caught a glimpse of shiny metal. I investigated and found the spoon Ocean had taken outside a few days earlier and lost. (Where'd you put it? I dunno.) Our silverware has been disappearing, so it was nice to get one back at least.

site of our future carport

He also pulled and rolled the logs to the side for the sawmill, then cleared the rocks and stumps, but ran out of time to level it as much as we wanted. We also didn't have enough gravel to put there, so we'll have to finish this area later. In the meantime, as the mud dries out we can start driving on it and compacting it.

shed ramp area

Mr M cleared out the dirt leading to the shed ramp. Hopefully, less will wash down the hill to the shed, but we need more gravel for that to actually be the case. He also leveled out the area next to the shed where we park the lawn tractor trailer, though that needs a bit more work. He was running out of time and didn't have time to finesse the job.

mulch area, with a bike that needs to be moved
the old dish is from the previous owners- we've never used it, so it got pushed out of the way

When we had a load of mulch dropped last fall, it was next to the RV, but that's not really a convenient location for us. I wanted it closer to where we actually use the mulch (the garden and play area), so we cleared a spot in the woods near the shed for trucks to back in and drop a load of mulch. I still need to make a sign to put on the tree at the back of the space.

garden area

Mr M leveled the garden area, but not quite as much as I'd hoped- time was such an issue. Despite that, it is so much better than before, and much less digging will be needed to get everything in place and reasonably level.

logs rolled to the side for milling, start of the lumber pile

While he was doing all that on Wednesday, the mobile sawmill guy came and I helped him turn 6 tree sections into a pile of lumber. It was hard work in 90* weather, but helping made the job go faster, which meant we paid less.

Despite the tree dying almost two years ago and the logs sitting on the ground for the last year, the wood is really wet. You can tell I was getting tired towards the end- the stacking wasn't nearly as neat and tidy. That wet wood is heavy!

The waste pile isn't as large as I was afraid it would be.

Saturday we re-stacked the lumber with stickers for spacing and put a tarp over it to let the wood dry out for a couple months. Once it's a bit drier we'll use it to build a ground floor for the treehouse (I've been wanting to for some time, just didn't have the time or the wood) and a house on the top floor (Sunshine's been campaigning for that for years). I'm not building in the heat of summer- been there, don't want to do it again- so we'll wait till the end of summer to do this.

I'll also finish the mantel piece then. I need to clean up the live edge and cut it to length, then we can finally install it on the wall. Which means we need to figure out what we're doing with the fireplace. I have ideas, but now that we can actually move forward with them, those ideas need to be fleshed out.

future mantel for our fireplace

There are so many huge rocks everywhere. Mr M started expanding the driveway circle a little just for a bit more turning space but came across a huge boulder that isn't going anywhere. It's not the first time either. There were several occasions where he had to keep digging deeper and deeper to get large rocks out of the way.  A backhoe would have been helpful but was not in the budget.

carport area beyond the cars, room for the trailers to be parked next to the cars and still out of the way

Despite the issues with the rain and the Bobcat, we did get so much done. There are some projects that will have to be finished with hand tools, but the hardest parts have been taken care of. Later in the summer we'll finish leveling the carport site and bring in more gravel.

Yes, Ocean is covered in dirt and barefoot. Always.