I'm sure any builder will tell you that anytime you are in the middle of a project the weather windows are all of a sudden REALLY important. I've been keeping a close eye on the weather patterns, so when I saw a break in the weather over the weekend after some light rains during the week I knew it would be the perfect time to get the fill dirt and CA-6 spread over the pad and compacted before the rains come again later this week. Unfortunately, I was so focused on the weather that I completely forgot about Easter! I actually didn't even remember until the sun was setting on a beautiful Saturday and we were only half way done with the job.
Oops!
We got started around noon on Saturday and spent eight hours hauling and packing down Fill dirt until the sun went down. It was my first time using a skid steer so it took me a while to get accustomed to coordinating the controls and fine tuning my technique but during the learning curve that thing literally beat the snot out of me! It was a really small unit, so it took a LOT of trips back and forth to haul the materials. But if you aren't used to moving around on a machine like that over rough ground it will bounce and buck and throw you around inside the cabin. I was so sore that evening I had take some aspirin to get some sleep! I set my alarm and told the kids to be outside ready to work at 0700hrs. I got up before them so I could tighten some belts and make sure everything was ready to start the day. So at 0645hrs on Easter morning I was cranked up and hauling (Note: I did feel sorry for my poor neighbors, but I was on a mission you know.) the rest of the Fill Dirt before readjusting the lines to haul rock. Sunday turned out to be much better because the rock was easier to haul and the ground was a lot smoother. It also helped that I was better at operating the machine.
Believe it or not, even with all that Fill Dirt I had hauled in I was still way short on the amount I needed. As a result, the top of slab will end up about 6" (150mm) lower than I originally planned. The front of the building will be about 8" (200mm) above grade, while the back will be about 2" (50mm) below grade. I will need to do some additional landscaping at the back of the building to create a shallow slope toward the building. Then I'll have to rely on the ground drainage system to cope with runoff. I think the 4" (100mm) perforated pipe with a good river rock seepage channel will handle that.
I didn't get any good pictures of the work we did on Saturday. I guess I was just too busy getting beat up by the skid-steer. The pictures below are mostly from the work we did on Sunday, hauling rock. You'll notice the big piles of Fill Dirt are gone. The pile of black dirt (top soil) will be used next year when we do some final grading around the yard.
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