Final push with excavator

This last week with the excavator was proving to be stormy and wet but we still managed to get out to Brown Hill Road several evenings. We finished a few last minute projects such as collecting all the stumps, logs, debris, as well as the rocks that were too big to lift ourselves. We filled the trailer so we could place them later. Darren hauled a few more loads of rock out there as well, and spread the last load on Thursday evening. We still need a lot more gravel, but the driveway is at least fully covered for once! The ditches are working well, the culverts doing a great job diverting the water under the driveway. There will always be clean up work needed (cleaning out the ditches, cutting off exposed roots, raking), but for now, we are calling this month a success! One other spontaneous project was to create rock features along the driveway — something we’ll likely continue to do as rock presents itself. My plan now is to take a video of driving the new driveway so you all can see the work we’ve done in its entirety! Next plans after that? Continue clearing the house site, septic will go in this summer, electric and water lines will go up the hill as well, and we are on the schedule for natural gas lines. Still in talks with the drafter to finalize house plans, so no set date for building, but we’re getting closer every week.

Last weekend with the machine

The excavator needs to be returned on June 11th, so we pushed hard this past weekend to get as much use out of it as possible. Darren hauled 42 tons of gravel to Brown Hill Road on Tuesday, and then ordered 40 additional tons to be delivered to the property on Saturday. He knew someone with a tri-axle truck could get it there in 2 loads, and with the gravel yard closing at noon he’d never be able to do it himself. I got to work right away on the burn pile — we had all the tree debris piled up and ready to burn so I kept it going all day. We also tossed on as many stumps as we could gather — I didn’t think they’d burn up but there are maybe half a dozen left. Not bad for having probably 30 or more needing burned!

Sunday was spent burning the last of the stumps, gathering logs, and pulling some tiny stumps along the road we created that will go from the barn to the back of the property.

Taking down the biggest dead tree

On the house site was a very large dead oak tree. It was about 3/4s dead when we bought the property, still putting out a few leaves along the topmost branches. Here is how it looked in the fall of 2019:

This year, it didn’t even bud at all. It was too dead to keep, and was too close to where the walkout basement will be, so we knew it had to come down. However, it leaned in all the wrong ways, and had so many upper branches yet that it really gave us pause. Darren finally decided that yesterday was the day that it must come down. The wind was very light, and the driveway was wet enough from Thursday and Friday’s rains that he couldn’t work on that. We used the excavator to try to keep it from falling the wrong way, and Rose and I kept watch to make sure it wouldn’t fall on him or drop a branch too early, but even all of that couldn’t keep it from twisting as it fell so that it ended up leaning on another tree. What a mess! But with the help of our trusty Suburban, we were able to give it a yank and it finally landed on the ground. There will be good burning from that for years to come in our wood burning furnace that we are planning to have. The excavator also makes quick work of the clean up!

Driveway Pt 3 Day 8

It rained today, so we didn’t get a ton of stuff done, but one thing we did accomplish was taking down this very large and very dead tree! It scared me to death, worried about dead branches coming down on top of Darren while he was cutting, but we put the excavator there for leverage and assistance. Luckily it was not rotten all the way through so it was just a regular cutting job. I watched as he cut, and it fell where we wanted it. There is one more tree that’s larger than this one that we will need to cut down on the house site, and we’re hoping to have more people there to watch the upper limbs as Darren is cutting.

Also, we have a ton of other stuff going on in the background! We signed an “intent to build” agreement with MAC General Contractors, and have had visits to the property by Duke Energy, a company to test our well, and we’ve been in contact with Vectren to bring natural gas up to the house site, and Brown County Water to get city water up the hill. We could possibly be building later this year, or at the latest, next spring! MAC had their drafter sit down with us to go over our plans and is going to give them his own touch. He had a lot of great ideas and suggestions. So much we don’t know or haven’t thought about! But in the end, we have to live there and love it so we are excited to see how we can make this dream come true.

Driveway Pt 3 Days 3-5

Big push this past week and weekend! After 3 rain-out days, the slope has been cut down to 9-10°, with a couple of spots at 12° that we’ll try to tame down. The dump truck can get up the hill loaded or unloaded now! We also got our culvert pipes and managed to get one installed Sunday night. We have 5 trees yet to bring down in the widening part of this project and then the tree work will be done. We need to ditch the side closest to the hill, and then start hauling in gravel. Not bad for one week’s work.

Found a few interesting things out on Brown Hill Road this past week too! First, my ditch for the seasonal spring is working! And we found the tiniest turtle we’ve seen so far. And Brood X is starting to emerge!

Driveway Project Part 3

Here we go again! Excavator rented, picked up, and well used on Day 1. Darren took at least 3-4 feet off the hill already which is a great start. Pulled up a dozen or more stumps too. The truck can’t go up the hill without anything in the back, so he put a few scoops of rock in the back and that did the trick. Now we’re filling the bed with stumps to take to the back. We’ll probably bury them somewhere!

Driveway Widening Project

It’s spring, so that means another go at the driveway. We actually got quotes to have this whole thing done by a professional but it came in way too high for our comfort so we’re going to do what we can on our own. We have an excavator reserved for a month and we’ll pick it up in a couple of weeks. We also bought that dump truck to help with the dirt that we’ll have to move and the gravel we’ll have to haul. We need to cut the slope down again, and we need to widen some sections and smooth out some curves. And we hope to have the entire thing covered in gravel by the end. Lots to do!!! So we started with cutting out some of the dead trees along the driveway, and the little saplings that had to go. We’ll end up having to take out 3 or 4 large trees as well, but might wait for the excavator to help.

While there, I took some shots of the terrific spring colors!

  • Buds on our replanted sycamore!