8.31.2022

The driveway issues after the hard rain yesterday weren't as bad as the first time but still required work.  You can see in this one area, the gravel went pretty far into the yard.  Ugh.  

Jim first went to fill up a couple cans with diesel fuel - we've been using the machines a lot lately.  Then he came to the rescue with the Bobcat and made the driveway flat again and look really good!

Doing some hand shoveling on the grass area...

And a little raking...

Jim had to do machine maintenance today - he greased up the Bobcat this morning and this afternoon it was the excavator's turn.

Then it was back to digging - including another big rock to remove!

At the end of the day yesterday, Jim moved all the rocks that I had removed from the dirt pile over to our other rock piles.  Ready to start again!

Here comes more dirt!

Getting ready to move these big rocks to our pile...

Moving the top soil pile over to the side to keep the site as clean as possible!

End-of-the-day picture - love the look of the curve!

It's not very often you see square things in nature but Jim found this almost perfect cube of a rock!

High 72.8/Low 60.8 - beautiful!

8.30.2022

I had a doctor appointment this morning so Mom came along and we did some errands afterwards.  Jim did some shop work in the morning; he also spent time trying to revive my old computer so that we can make sure it's clean and then sell/donate it.

In the afternoon, he headed outside, hoping to get some work done before the rains came.  A little metal detecting first just found some square nails (still cool).

Doing some digging...

Moving dirt...

Unfortunately, he got rained out as a strong line of storms moved through.  Even more unfortunately, we think we had some driveway washout.  Ugh.  But on the bright side, the rocks we put up next to the lean to seemed to keep the dirt from washing away.  We lost power briefly and the generator kicked on, but it didn't last long (thanks, National Grid!).

Jim did some organizing in the metal shop - he may be moving some cabinets around to clear up more floor space.

High 86.4/Low 69.5 - storm in PM

 

8.29.2022

 Before doing any more digging, Jim wanted to do a little metal detecting around the dirt pile and a little further out where he's doing the driveway.  He found this interesting old hook...

Then it was back to digging dirt, moving dirt...

Jim moved the giant rock that he dug up yesterday over to our rock pile...

Scraping off the top soil to keep that in a separate pile from the fill...

Picking up a bucketful of big rocks!

It's really starting to take shape - exciting to think about the possibilities here!

Jim next picked up a bucketful of smaller rocks - we wanted to put them next to the lean to.  It's supposed to rain tomorrow so hopefully this will keep the soil from eroding...

Looks good!

High 88.9/Low 66.2

8.28.2022

Jim did some shop work this morning but then in the afternoon we all headed outside to play in the dirt!  Jim had dug more dirt yesterday so he started by scooping up all the dirt first...

Then bringing it over to our increasing dirt pile, where I picked out the large rocks...

Jim was in the area where the original stone wall went through so there were lots of rocks - we picked up a bucketful before he got back to digging...

Check out the size of this rock - the excavator thumb pays for itself every time once of these huge rocks needs to be moved!

You can see that giant rock in the background of this picture as Jim is scooping up more dirt...

Our driveway area is taking shape!

A different view...

The last bucketful Jim brought over to the pole barn where he started filling in the area between the bottom of the structure and the ground...

Looking great - required a lot of hand work, especially to reach around the back...

Ready for some rocks!

We had a little time at the end of the day, so we decided to take the metal detector down to the end of the driveway.  We were told that there was once a shed-type structure down here.

We keeping hoping we'll find a coin!

But we found this metal pipe, a couple cans and nails...

This is old - but we aren't really sure what it is...

High 81/Low 55

8.27.2022

 Jim had to finish up all the flashing on this final back corner connection...

Putting in the last of the fasteners...

Besides grading, the construction of the pole barn lean to is done!  I love the way it looks and it's going to be so helpful to Jim to store tools he doesn't need often.

After putting some tools away that he won't need now, Jim brought the Bobcat up to the top of the hill and then started up the excavator.  After marking our eventual driveway lines the other day, Jim started digging.  He wants the driveway to be flat from the area of the pavilion spot on back.

Once he got a big swath dug, he used the Bobcat to scoop up the dirt...

Then he brought it over to the side of the yard and dumped it.  Jim had used the excavator to pick out some really big rocks, so I just picked out any other larger ones from the pile...

That's a lot of dirt he removed!

And it made a good start to our upper driveway!

At this point, it was getting late and Mom and I headed inside to get ready for church.  Jim stayed out to do a little more digging, so pictures to come!

Today was a big celebration day - Mom's 89th birthday!  She enjoyed calls and texts from family and we celebrated with cake and ice cream after dinner!  

High 76.9/Low 60.1 - beautiful!