Dirt and Rock Delivered

The additional fill dirt was delivered earlier last week. After that got dropped off I ordered the rock (CA-6) but I really wasn't expecting the delivery over the weekend due to the rain we received.

So I was surprised when the drivers called to say they were only ten minutes away!

Both of the trucks almost got stuck in the yard and as a result they were not able to drop the rock closer to the pad. The ruts are pretty deep, but no worries as that will eventually be the driveway anyway.

The weather is forecast to be cold and rainy next weekend, so I'm not expecting any progress for a little while.

Backfill estimates

Yesterday after work I went out and shot some measurements to figure out backfill estimates.

If my method is correct it looks like I'll need:

40 Yards of Fill and 30 Yards of CA-6 for the pad.
Plus I'll need 10 Yards of CA-11 for the perimeter drainage.
(The trucks deliver in 10 Yard increments and I can use any excess on the driveway)

Backhoe Rental

This time of year the weather can be fickle, so when I saw a favorable forecast for the weekend I took a chance and rented a Backhoe to clear the building pad and take care of some left over trash (cement and bricks) from the previous owner. At the top of the list was removing that stump and since I'm nowhere close to being an expert at the backhoe, I called a friend of mine to see if he could come over and take care of it for me. He was available and all was set!

The backhoe was delivered Friday afternoon for a week's worth of time. Travis wasn't coming over until Saturday afternoon, so I took my time and dug a big hole in the backyard to burn the pile of small branches in the background of this first picture. I also needed a hole to throw the stump into later on.

When I was all done, I ended up with a good sized pile of clean fill to use on the pad later on.

Travis digging out the stump

It took over an hour

 But finally, it came out

...and was pulled over to the backyard and dropped into it's final resting place where it will rot away and create a big sinkhole to deal with later on...

Once the stump was removed, I back filled the hole and then started to work on scraping out the building pad.

The topsoil was hauled over to the back yard to fill in a shallow trench: 

Then I went over to the back corner of the yard and dug several large holes to bury the trash left over from the previous owner:

Overall, a very productive weekend! I rented the Backhoe for a week, but it only took two days to take care of everything I needed, so I'll get a little bit of money back on the rental charges.

This morning it was forecast to rain, so I got out at first light and finished just in time. I took this  last picture to show a before/after from the first picture.
I ended up scraping approximately 6" (150mm) off the top of the pad.

The bottom edge of those batter boards represent the top of the slab.
The ground at the South West corner (far left batter board) is 17" lower than the North East (near right batter board) corner, so it'll take quite a bit of compacted fill to level things out.

Now I'm waiting for a couple loads of fill dirt and some crushed rock.

Second Tile Installed

No drama. So far so good!

First Tile in the ground

I started early this morning chipping away at the frozen dirt with a pick. That was a lot like beating on cured cement for about an hour or so until I got down another 6" (150mm). After that the ground was thawed and the digging went much better.

I didn't want to deprive my kids of the opportunity, so I got them out to help as soon as they were done with their other chores. I think they were really happy to have the opportunity to help out!

Anyway, we dug down just over 6' (1.8m) and a little over 4' (1.2m) in diameter.

Then we made a small ramp area to let the tile ease down over a soft edge.

I don't have any heavy equipment rented yet, so we resorted to using the Kia to pull the tiles into place. First we laid down a few junk boards from the shed we tore down earlier and used them as rails to slide the tile toward the hole. Once the tile was teetering near the edge we reworked the straps and positioned the car on the other side to act as a brake. We laid out enough slack in the rope to allow us to get the tile rotated into the hole. Once that was done, I just backed up a few inches and the tile smoothly slid right into place. No drama!

After that we put the cap in place to keep the dirt out while we packed up around the outside.

Tomorrow we'll get the second tile in place.

Sewer Pipe Located

The weather was nice enough after work today that I could take a couple hours to locate and dig up the sewer line. I was relieved to find a good long piece of 4" (100mm) PVC that I could easily tie into. I was really hoping that would be the case since the clay pipe is much more difficult to work with. I would have probably been forced to hire a plumber to get it done right.

I also started working on digging the hole for the vertical sump pit, but after only a little bit I found the ground was still frozen. I'm guessing that layer is not very thick so we should be able to get through it over the weekend.

In the meantime, I'm ordering up some supplies that will be needed later on.

Removed remainder of trees

This weekend cleared up quite nicely, so we were able to get out and finish up with the tree removal.

If you look near the center of the snow melt, you might be able to make out a stake.
That will be the SW corner of the building (Camera is pointing just North of West). From that stake looking North you can see the two small logs standing on end roughly making up the NW & NE corners. Then between the stake and the bottom of the picture, you might be able to make out a rock with a log lying next to it. That would be the SE corner of the building.

As you can see, the Walnut stump is in a bad location and will be a joy to remove I'm sure. But, I left it a bit tall to provide more leverage for the backhoe to push around. That's the theory anyway...

Also, the field in the background does slope away from this lot allowing water to drain. It appears all I need to do is connect that dirt berm (creating a small levee) and then pump the groundwater to the other side of it. Gravity should take over from there.

The next project (pending ground thaw) will be to locate and dig up the sewer drain so I can install a "T" and vertical clean-out in preparation for running a sewer drain to the building later on. Then we'll work on getting those vertical tiles dug into the ground so we can start collecting and removing the runoff. I'd like to get that done before the spring rains come so we're not stuck working in a mud hole.

Eventually, we'll get the batter boards staked out as soon as it dries up.

So far, so good. No one got hurt and I got a good workout!

A break in the weather.

This morning we woke up to 4" of snow (it's still coming down), but over the weekend we got a break in the weather. Enough to get the shed torn down and the big walnut tree cut down.

I actually got really lucky with the tree. 

The intention was to drop it toward the front yard, but I did a poor job of making the first cut. 

The poor seat cut combined with the offset weight of the tree and a slight breeze caused it to lean toward the back yard. We had already tied a rope to it and tried pulling it over toward the front yard but it wouldn't budge, so I had to do a bit more cutting to get it to come down. 

So I cranked up the saw and cut for no more than five seconds before the base of the tree snapped and slid off the stump landing with a thud just a foot or so from where I was standing before falling over into the back yard. 

Not according to plan, but in the end it turned out to be the best place for it to fall since that's where we were going to be piling all the brush. The original intent was to have the clean up area centered over the future driveway where I was going to be scraping away the topsoil anyway.

For now, I'm leaving the trunk intact hoping I might be able to sell it to someone with a hobby sawmill. I really hate to see such a nice trunk turned into firewood.

If the weather clears again next weekend, we'll be working on pulling down the other little trees in the background.