{"id":2580,"date":"2014-05-10T09:52:51","date_gmt":"2014-05-10T15:52:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/?p=2580"},"modified":"2014-05-10T09:52:51","modified_gmt":"2014-05-10T15:52:51","slug":"got-driveway-long-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/got-driveway-long-post\/","title":{"rendered":"Got Driveway? (Long Post)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Temperature in the teens and snow in the air. On Sunday, April 27, I headed up to The Lot. I needed to open up the trailer and get ready for the backhoe to arrive the next morning. Opening the trailer meant hand-pumping\u00a0water, starting the furnace and refrigerator, and \u00a0seeing if all\u00a0systems still worked. I had the generator going to charge the batteries and give me some electrical power for lights.<\/p>\n

Mice\u00a0had gotten into the trailer, causing quite a mess. (Pam will have more on that situation later.) I cleaned as well as I could for the moment and\u00a0called Pam and let her know to bring up disinfectant when she came up on Monday,\u00a0then called it a night. Note: I drive down the road about 5 – 6 miles to get into a good cell phone coverage spot to call Pam. Rarely is there cell\u00a0coverage at The Lot, although once in a while that does happen (not often enough to be reliable).<\/p>\n

Monday morning it was even colder and the snow was heavier, enough to put a white coating on Sanderling Court. I made a quick trip to Fairplay to pick up a few items, including hardware to seal the gap where the mouse had gained entry. (A plastic panel under the trailer had broken and fallen away. I was able to re-attach the panel and eliminate the gap.) Then I headed up to to Hwy 285 to wait for the United Rental truck to show up with the backhoe.<\/p>\n

The rig arrived around 11:30 on the back of a large flatbed trailer.<\/p>\n

\"Backhoe<\/a>

Backhoe arrives<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Quite<\/a>

Quite the machine<\/p><\/div>\n

With no instruction, the truck driver unloaded the tractor and left. I got right to work.<\/p>\n

The next set of photos was taken by Pam on Tuesday — \u00a0she had arrived with the dogs late Monday and had been cleaning mouse poop and bagging laundry the previous day. By Tuesday I was working on the most difficult part of the driveway extension – \u00a0the rock wall and crushed granite area.<\/p>\n

\"Getting<\/a>

Getting started on the extension<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Digging<\/a>

Digging out rocks<\/p><\/div>\n

Note the rocks I am digging out of the roadway – those babies were huge and almost a job-stopper. Temperature was in the low 20’s; I have on my stocking cap and heavy winter coat. At times we had snow showers.<\/p>\n

\"Using<\/a>

Using the bucket to move material<\/p><\/div>\n

Along the way we had a couple of lighter moments. One morning we wanted pancakes but had no mixing bowl so we made one out of an empty water jug:<\/p>\n

\"Water<\/a>

Water jug turned mixing bowl<\/p><\/div>\n

The fresh snow on the mountains made a\u00a0striking site as this telephoto shot shows.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Mosquito Range from our lot<\/p><\/div>\n

We changed plans a bit – never did use the culvert I bought – and made a circular driveway near the top of the gulch (creating a cul-de-sac). The original plan had been to continue going uphill into what we call the saddle area, but the circular drive plan made more sense as it would allow me\u00a0to pull the trailer to the “top” of the drive and out again without having to back the trailer at all.<\/p>\n

Here is a shot I took shortly before I left. At this point I still had some hand shoveling to do.<\/p>\n

\"RV<\/a>

RV at the top of the circular drive<\/p><\/div>\n

I did not get all the photos of the drive I should have, but I was getting very tired by the end of the\u00a0week\u00a0and here I still had hand shoveling to do. I unhitched the truck, finished some hand work, then went through the process of re-winterizing the trailer. Pam had headed home with the dogs on Saturday; I left for home Monday morning, May 5th.<\/p>\n

You can see, just behind the hood of the truck, the space I excavated for the storage shed. It will be delivered May 23rd. Before then I need to get some gravel down on the driveway and am working with a local gravel pit to get that done. 3\/4 inch washed rock goes for about $12.00 per ton plus\u00a0a $100.00 round trip charge for a\u00a0truck capable of handling 14 tons. One of the gravel pit guys is going out to Sanderling\u00a0this Monday to get some idea of how many tons of rock we will need (and can afford).<\/p>\n

Overall I was satisfied with the work I did. The circular drive will work out well and is just big enough to park the RV and still be able to get the truck unhitched and down the driveway. Another advantage of the circle drive is proximity to the areas needing\u00a0clean-out of dead and downed wood; getting the aluminum trailer closer to the work area will speed up the process. \u00a0Eventually, the circle drive will also allow\u00a0(big) truck access to the spots where I think the well and septic will need to be installed.<\/p>\n

By the end of May gravel will be down and the shed will be in place. That will complete several of our major projects for the year\u00a0— completion of the driveway extension,\u00a0pad for the RV, pad for the storage shed, delivery of the shed. Other than lot clean up, we’ve reluctantly concluded there will likely be no other major projects in the works for this year. It would be nice to get a well drilled but the nearly $9k price tag means we’ll\u00a0have to save for a year to be able to afford it. That’s why we have a 5-year plan. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!<\/p>\n

Pam’s Two Cents Worth (or maybe Ten Cents Worth):<\/p>\n

How cold was it? \u00a0Too cold for Blondie\u00a0to come out from under her blanket until mid-week. \u00a0She had to wear her doggie coat [again] to go outside in 18 degree weather, not her favorite piece of apparel.\u00a0Blondie was not amused.<\/p>\n

\"Blondie<\/a>

Blondie under her blanket<\/p><\/div>\n

How cold was it? \u00a0The batteries would only power the RV furnace until the wee hours of the morning, Jer had to go into the cold and start the generator to recharge the batteries early each a.m. \u00a0Br-r-r-r.<\/p>\n

How cold was it? \u00a0Too cold to leave the “slide” out all night, cold air circulates under those extensions and there’s no insulation under there. \u00a0B-r-r-r.<\/p>\n

How cold was it? \u00a0Too cold to open the windows and air out the RV after I started spraying bleach on all the mouse turds that had to be cleaned and disposed of. \u00a0Hanta Virus is carried in the West by mouse droppings, so I had to use bleach, rubber gloves and facial covering while working under the cupboards and on surfaces. \u00a0The mice seemed to enjoy the bathroom the most, although we had nothing stored under the sink in there. \u00a0Mice even chewed on the hand soap. \u00a0I hope someone had a stomach ache (“I’m forever blowing bubbles\u2026”). \u00a0I can now easily distinguish mouse turds from regular dirt and\u00a0seeds. \u00a0Not a skill I hope to use frequently.<\/p>\n

A comment on Big Boy Toy operation: \u00a0There’s a reason heavy machine operators are paid the big bucks. \u00a0Backhoes are dinosaurs to operate and they are dangerous. \u00a0As the spotter and designated “911” caller, I alternated between worrying if Jer would survive when the backhoe flipped over the embankment, if we could pay for the damage to the backhoe after it flipped over, and finally both. \u00a0My thoughts were, “Fields, what did you \u00a0get us into?” \u00a0The driveway transitioned from a lovely crushed granite base to plain old dirt; the dirt-based length of the driveway extension is what prompted the need to order\u00a0rock from the gravel pit. \u00a0And the soft dirt was a major problem in trying to negotiate with a heavy backhoe\u00a0— no footings, big ruts and lots of tipping.<\/p>\n

When the storage shed is delivered – presumably on \u00a0a flatbed – then we’ll know if the driveway is wide enough and firm enough. \u00a0We already know it’s expensive enough.<\/p>\n

If there is another major expense this summer, it will likely be investing in a battery farm to store power from the solar panels and keep the furnace running all night. \u00a0Maybe even enough power to run the microwave. \u00a0There’s a thought.<\/p>\n

Happy Trails.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Temperature in the teens and snow in the air. On Sunday, April 27, I headed up to The Lot. I needed to open up the trailer and get ready for the backhoe to arrive the next morning. Opening the trailer meant hand-pumping\u00a0water, starting the furnace and refrigerator, and \u00a0seeing if all\u00a0systems still worked. I had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2580"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2594,"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2580\/revisions\/2594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}