9.27.2013

Jim went off this morning to do more trenching and I headed to Hadley to pick up some envelopes so I could do a fire school mailing.  This place I found has turned out to be kind of pricey so this may be my last trip there. They happen to be located on the road we took to get to the 20 acre parcel that was a strong contender when we were looking for land. There is an incredible view of the falls and rapids from this bridge, so with the leaves starting to turn I couldn't help but stop.  There were 2 couples there also taking pictures and one of the women asked me where I was from. I told here that we had just moved here from Ohio a couple of weeks ago. She said they were from Allentown PA and had come to the area on vacation. She was going on about how beautiful everything was and how much they loved Saratoga Springs. It was an interesting feeling to know that we lived in their vacation spot! That's one of the things that Jim always says - being up here is like being on vacation.

Falls in Hadley

I took lunch and we ate it at the land.  This was the first cloudy day ever had here - no rain though.  Jim had really made good progress on the trench.  The road is well in sight - he's probably less than 200 feet away.  He's still pulling out crazy big rocks.

Giant rocks Jim has gotten out of the trench

After lunch, the plan was to work on the driveway area.  National Grid requires conduit underneath and there are exact specifications on how to place it.

The first step was to crumb it out, getting all the rocks out of the bottom and making a smooth surface.

Then Jim had to place sand in the bottom...

...and get that all smooth and level.

Then it was time for compacting.  We got to use the compactor Jim got from Craigslist for the first time. Unfortunately, he went to start it and the starter pull rope broke.  Thankfully, he was able to make it work by tying it off and just having a shorter pull.  But then, it didn't run well.  He played around with it for awhile and got it to run better but he said he'll definitely have to work on the carburetor.  Which of course isn't as easy as it sounds now that we have no garage and tools all over the place in various storage units and states.

Anyway, then we had to get the compactor into the trench.  This thing weighs a ton - there's no way you can just lift it.  So Jim tied one end of the rope to the compactor, got into the excavator and brought it over, I hooked the other end onto the teeth and he pulled out up over the trench and carefully set it down inside.

Thankfully, once the compactor was running it did a good job and ran well.  Jim just had to baby it to get it running okay. 

Of course, then you have to haul the compactor out of the trench to keep working.

All compacted!

Then it was time for the conduit.  Specs require 2-30 foot sections so in case something happens to one, you've got another.  They come in 10 foot sections so they first have to be glued together and then you put end caps on to keep them clean inside the trench.

All glued up

Then Jim and I put them down into the trench.

Then it became a repeat of everything we just did.  So first more sand on top of the conduit...

Then loading up the compactor to put inside the trench...

Compacting...

Then it was time for some backfill.  Even with all the rocks that Jim got out when he made the trench in the first place, there are still lots of rocks that you don't want in there, especially on top of the conduit.  So I would stay in the trench and throw the rocks out while Jim was backfilling.

 

 

After that layer was done, it was back to compacting...

And repeat...

Until it was time for the final layer...

 

...and more compacting...

...and we have a driveway again!  Jim got to drive the machinery over it as he was cleaning up to leave.  Success!

Leaf peeper pic 2 didn't show up the leaves too well because of the clouds.