Getting Stoned

Well I probably jinxed it with my last post, because of course our stretch of beautiful weather broke and we got rain right when we were scheduled to get gravel delivered. And, it was a lot of rain, so of course that area near the road that I was afraid would get all muddy got hopelessly soggy and slippery. The gravel truck arrived last Thursday and before pulling in, the driver walked over to express his doubt on account of the weather. (He also took a moment to doubt the ability of our tractor to effectively spread out the gravel between deliveries - "You're going to do it with that?! Oookaayy...." - Needless to say, we did not appreciate this unnecessary negative sentiment.) However, we figured with his heavy truck and huge tires, he ought to be okay. He pulled in and dropped off one load, and based on how that went, we figured we'd go for a second. Unfortunately, on his way out he got stuck in the slippery mud, and for a few moments were were concerned that we would have a huge truck stuck at the entrance to the driveway. Thankfully after gently rocking forward and backward enough times he eventually made it out. Matt got to work with the tractor while my dad and I used shovels to help spread the gravel, obviously concentrating on the puddles and extremely muddy areas first. For having ordered 4" bank run, a lot of those cobblestones were considerably larger than 4"...

After about 45 minutes we had the first load spread out, and we were left waiting for the next load (take THAT, non-believing truck driver!). While this load was delivered much more effectively than the first thanks to the new layer of gravel we had just leveled out, the driver was not confident that we would have continued success, and told us we should wait until the weather improved and things dried out. Drats. We leveled out the second load and called it a day, and once again we were left waiting.

The rain eventually tapered and we were able to schedule the remaining deliveries for today. This time, instead of dumping all of the gravel in one pile that needed to be spread out, the driver started at one end of the driveway and slowly dumped while driving. The hatch of the truck had a chain on it that only allowed the door to open so much, so that the flow of the gravel was rather controlled as the truck rolled along. This left very little work for us to then have to do, other than some minor leveling out and a whole bunch of driving back and forth to help pack the gravel down. And by "us" I actually mean Matt and my dad, as I was unavailable, so it's a good thing that there was less work to have to do this time.

So now we have a driveway!....mostly. We still don't technically have an approved site plan, so we still can't get the driveway permit that would allow us to complete the driveway where it meets the road. But for now, at least we have a "paved" pathway that will allow us to drive in and out from the site without getting stuck in the mud anymore. Progress!

Updated budget:
$370.00 - Rush Gravel Corp. 2 trucks of 12 yds #3 gravel
$555.00 - Rush Gravel Corp. 3 trucks of 12 yds #3 gravel
TOTAL SPENT SO FAR: $39,253.29