Driveway Resurfacing

This week Chris has been working hard to get the driveway leveled and graveled. We rented a Bobcat and it arrived on Monday afternoon. Chris worked hard until dusk to get all the potholes filled in and the stumps removed before the gravel arrived on Tuesday morning at 10am.

Having Fun Yet!?!

The front yard finished.

Leveling out the barn-side yard.
He also shortened our rock wall so that we have more room for cars to back up without hitting the wall; and a big plus might I add; so I don't have to weed so much untamed garden area. The rock wall now ends at the end of the grass in the front yard.

Fixing another turn around spot.
I think Chris really enjoyed this!

New turn around spot.

Driveway all done and waiting for the gravel.

10AM came and went, and no gravel, which he was concerned about because we only had the Bobcat until 2PM. So he called them and found out that they had a truck break down and they wouldn't be able to deliver the gravel until 2PM. He was not a happy camper.

So he made the best use of the Bobcat while he could and leveled out the yard on the barn-side of the house and also at the bottom of the hill in the meadowy area.The gravel arrived exactly at 2PM - 10 yards of gravel!

Wow that's a lot to shovel!
They didn't arrive to pick up the Bobcat until 2:30 so he was able to get most of it moved around before they arrived.Go Chris Go!
It's amazing how much work can be done so easily and fast with the right equipment

He finished up shoveling the rest of the gravel and it looks really good.
We still need another 20 yards or so to finish in front of the house but that will come soon in "phase two" which will probably be next payday.
Here is the finished driveway so far.
Great job Chris, and Thank You so much!

Tree Removal in Driveway

After much planning it was time for the menacing tree, that was crowding out our driveway, to finally come down. Bob had Chris use his old climbing spurs that he used when he was Chris's age. The funny thing about it was that even though they are still in pretty good shape and safe to use, we saw them in a museum in Alaska when we went on our cruise in June. That wasn't very encouraging to Chris when he found out, but he braved the adventure anyway.

Strapping on the climbing spurs.
Chris lopped the limbs as he went up.
And then tied a rope around the tree about 2/3 of the way to the top.Bob, Rich and Paul piled the limbs to keep them out of the way.
Rich and Bob preparing for the next step of cutting the tree down.
Cutting the wedge.
The last cut... Bob wasn't too happy that I got this picture, when he looked up and saw that I was standing too close to where it was going to land.
They tied a pulley around another tree and pulled on the rope to keep the tree going in the right direction as it fell.
The tree fell exactly where Bob wanted it to and they all helped to get it cut up and out of the way.

I had a few more pictures of Rich helping but they all turned out blurry. They were working real fast to get it all done before it got dark and I thought I was getting some good pictures of them working but I wasn't careful enough to get them in motion without the blur.

One of the logs in motion as they pulled it over to the barn with the quad.