Happiness is in a Pile Of Rocks...
Who knew a pile of Rocks could make someone so happy?!?
A while back I wrote something about Building a Driveway by Hand.
It definitely worked as a road to get into that side of the property but it was bumpy and anyone with a truck that has a long wheel base couldn't make it up without bottoming out. The incline was a bit much but it was the place we picked for a road because we didn't have to cut a tree down untill our little moving truck came along. Even then, the tree we cut down was at the most 8 inches wide.
I felt like a Roman!
They built a lot of roads, didn't they? Although, this road doesn't lead to Rome, it sure leads to our Little Off-Grid Empire!
About a month ago, I piled on another layer of bigger rocks, laying around the property the take the slope down a bit. Last week I finally got to finish the drivway with a layer of baby item 4. It's crushed blue stone from one of the closests quarries and it packs down pretty much like asphalt.
All this means really, is more work has been handed to me but that will make for one more thing to scratch off the long list of things to do while buildi ngn a homestead!
We had 21 tons delivered, and it looks barely any bigger than a small car!!! It will never be as smooth as a driving road, it will never be smooth enough to skateboard on but wow, what a difference it makes... we can actually drive up and down this thing without having to worry about popping a tire or having a rock bounce up and break something on the undercarriage.
Something could have puntured the fuel tank!
But those are now days gone by and we can mostly scratch that project off the list... I say mostly because as time goes by and the stones settle it will needs maintenance, but it should only be minor stuff.
Again I did the work by hand with the help of a shovel, a wheel barrel and a rake... driving up and down it, once it was done also helped pack it down. It showed me where I had to fill in a couple places. I will also have to widen it at some point it the future, but for now ot's a beautiful driveway!
In the end I didn't count, but I probably loaded 30 of those wheel berrels, somewhere around 10 shovel fulls.... and spread them across the rocks carefully and keeping in mind the flow of water (it slopes slightly down on the turn like a race track!).
And for the final product we got this:
The entire thing took me about three hours (I'm just talking about the little stones I spread across the old job!), bot too bad considering I'm doing this all by my lonesome!
What I'm particularly happy about is the low carbon foot print this job created (from beginning to end). Yes there was a big dump truck, but he delivered the stone from only about 5 miles away.
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You have a minor misspelling in the following sentence:
It should be until instead of untill.@grammarnazi GO AWAY, and buy a life somewhere. It reads just fine!
>:(@senorcoconut I enjoyed this driveway build posting, it shows a well conceived plan that fixed a real problem! Thanks
:DThats a lot of work @senorcoconut. Looks good! Need some slaves or soldiers like the Romans for all that moving stone by hand work.
Sorry for the late reply, we've been camping at a festival and working... no service!
Thanks, yea it was a lot of work but it was all a labor of love.
Oh Wow! Great job and great post. Who cares about a few misspellings. I don't. You're tired after all that blood sweat and tears. I love that you do everything you can yourself. So much more fulfilling too.
True, it's very fulfilling but I'm almost 43 and will have to start thinking (sometime over the next decade) about being extra carefull with phisical labor!
Sorry for the late reply we were off into the wilderness at a festival without cell service!
Oh my we need this so bad here on our road, but alas. The Belizean government is too poor to even do this much on the 12.5 mile road. Of course the banana farms and orange farms won't do it, even though they're mostly the ones tearing it up. As we get into the rainy season it gets crazy. A couple weeks ago there were holes where the water level was close to the top of the tires. Madness.
Oh wow that's crazy... off course the banana farmers won't fix the road, though woudn't they do it once the road was completely unusable and actually hurt their business???
I've swen many roads down in central and south america and I know it's hard to believe but some roads in Mew York City are on pare with some of the worst roads I've seen... even in Haiti!
Well, they are usually in big trucks, and those guys can almost always get down the road. It has to be REALLY bad for them to not pass.
That's crazy New York would have such horrible roads, though I guess it's hard to do repairs when the traffic literally never stops!
That's what I think... traffic never stops! There is also an ugly budget thing happening, if they don't spend that year's budget they get less money the next year. And unions... job security. Work slow, and mke sure you still have work to finish tomorrow (always)!
Such an inefficient system. Just top to bottom. I'm so grateful for unions, but people just shouldn't do a job they don't love. Love what you do, do it well, and there will always be more work for you. It's ultimately a failure of the school system I think.
I completely aggree with you. It's an education thing... It's sad how so many of us humans feel forced or lazy to join in the mal-education ceremony most of our lives... Sometimes the law makes us do it too!
True, Unions can do it smart too
The modern education system is super nefarious.
I would love to un-school our little guy. Don't know if we have the capacity right now but once other families join us on the homestead hipefully we'll be more motivated. I want him to have other kids to play with in the forest
It looks fabulous! And I’m sure it makes a huge difference driving on! I would love to have more time to do projects myself, but my kids are my projects right now lol.
Thank you! It is a lot of work and I understand perfectly the little ones being your project right now. We have a 4 year old and fortunately both of us are home (most of the time) so we can split our time between building the homestead and raising a homesteader!
I would have enjoyed shoveling the rocks in the wheel barrow :) Driveway looks great. We have to get ours re-graveled since the rain washed them some.
Ah the rain!!! It's been raining so much here in the Hudson Valley area. It's a good test for the little driveway I guess.
Thank you, I forgot we had done the driveway until we got home yesterday... so smouth compared to before! We were completely off the grid, no phone either at a festival, sorry for replying so late.
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omg!! excellent post I love
Thanks!