My man wanted me to blog about our progress on the barn site but it wasn't significant enough. Well now you might notice a difference. Really this site prep is getting tiresome.
I spent so much time working and then my man would come home and say "But it's not perfectly level" and he'd have to re-do all my work. That didn't stop me though, I'd just go ahead and spend another full day on something he'd have to re-do another day. I want to finish this someday.
First we were graciously loaned a little trailer by a nice geocaching couple to get a few loads of gravel. He had to use his Dodge SUV to haul - our Prius is not a puller. Oh, you can't really see the trailer in this photo because we covered it with a tarp. It stood in front of our house for over a week.
His SUV is *huge* for Germany!Well the first one worked out, the second cubic meter of rock broke the axle on the trailer and made a big mess the guys had to clean up by shovel in the driveway of the landscaping supply company. We girls sat in my kitchen making peach cobbler (with the terrier lady's yearly peach gift) and wondering if the guys had decided to go geocaching without us.
I felt terrible about the axle but served our last big BBQ of the year (or NOT!) last night with our new friends. A day of caching gone, I felt bad for our guests but he really wanted to take a look at our barn site and help with logistics.
I proudly pointed out the entire left wall and half of the back wall which I built this week using a level, (no, 3 levels: a tiny level, a 1 meter level, and a 2.5 meter long level!)...
...several hundred "spoonfulls" of gravel taken wheelbarrow load at a time from trailer to site, where then I used a little sledgehammer to pack them tight. (The back wall is two layers; the under layer is submerged to act as a drainage, full of gravel.)
Whenever that bubble is in the center, I'm happy, and it never was the first try. I had to work the ground over and over to get each stone level in all directions.My man has Autumn break next week and he promises me that we will finish this thing. I'll be delighted to get the site prep done finally, I cannot imagine getting that thing built so soon, with so much to do.
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7 comments:
I can't wait to see it! Your area is so beautiful and I just know it's going to look perfect!
Seems like so much work just for the site prep, Im sure the actual building will go up quicker.
Wow, you have been so busy! And you're doing it right - a perfect foundation will make everything so much better in the long run. I really wouldn't have the patience for it, so huge kudos to your man for doing it right the first time.
Shoveling gravel SUUUUCKS, you poor thing.
Site prep, blech. It takes *forever* and it's so disheartening!
If you want, I can tell you how many truckloads of gravel I've moved onto the site of our future barn...lemme just say that "city girl" Lisa is growing some upper body strength from gravel-moving!
I think you're using a larger-gauge rock than us, though. We've been getting 5/8 gravel, which contains a fair amount of sand plus rocks no bigger than my thumb. Is your rock bigger than that? Hmmm.
We will start the "leveling" process this weekend. You can tell I'm thrilled.....
I'm thinking the bigger rock is to stablize the site, then, hopefully, your crew (of two +/-) will add some smaller stuff on top for actual footing for Mr. Baasha? My ground is naturally rocky, and has enough clay that it packs down well just with traffic. So I use the 5/8to level it all off. The "fines" (basically, sand) helps it to settle and "lock" the gravel together nicely, after a bit. Fringe benefit of 5/8 gravel around the barn, waterers, gates is that it helps to naturally wear everybody's hooves (just got to keep an eye out for little guys getting stuck next to the frog...).
aarene, evensong, you're right - the bigger rock is a base, but we'll get finer stuff (minus?) for the top layer, when we're ready. you guys are obervant! good to have your help!
We're still moving gravel and leveling, bah, this is boring, and now it's raining too hard to work.
I want to see progress--on YOUR barn, if not on mine!!!!
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