Excavating company is supposed to be here first thing tomorrow, so I have picked the area clean and moved everything out of the way.
Here are some before shots, with the last one taken right out at my street entrance.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10064/newdrive1.jpg)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10064/newdrive2.jpg)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10064/newdrive3.jpg)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10064/newdrive4.jpg)
Well thats one good thing about this economy ::).
The contractors are hungry :'( and ready to go to work.
How many showed up begging for the job ???
I would have thought I would find some hungry offers also, but it seems the reverse, since the economy is down my topsoil has little value, so non wanted to do an offset.
Most of the guys who came to look said $1300 a day plus material. Turns out that the company that will be doing the work is actually a concrete recycling company, with a glut of crushed material and a bit of down time. Also in my favor, their equipment yard and crushing location are both in my town and fairly close.
The crushed concrete works real well, but some of it has alot of wire in it. We walked the ground after using some for filling in large "holes" in our dirt roads. We still managed to pick up a wire with one of our loader tires.
Mark
this company does use chrushing and screening, so 3" minus first then 3/4" minus on top. That should cut down on the wire.
nice open land . I guess when I picture the southern parts of the state , I think urban.
I will go out and take some pix now after 3 days of work but maybe only 2 days worth of hours really
yes I found a real nice place that also has like 10 walmarts within 20 minutes drive.
here are 3 shots of the work done with about 2.3 days of excavating time. Most of the work is way back, but the pile of fill is evident in one shot. 6 loads of top soil out and 4 loads of crushed concrete back in about 20 yard loads.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10064/newdrive5.jpg)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10064/newdrive6.jpg)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10064/newdrive7.jpg)
While they are working and hauling on the sawmill driveway I have been picking out the house driveway to make it full 2 cars wide and have a good back in turn around. First shot is the drive itself, now half coverd with crushed concrete 3/4 minus
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10064/housedrive1.jpg)
and a shot of the turn around area with just clean out and no material
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10064/housedrive2.jpg)
a shot of the turn around area
nice set up. I need a little driveway repair myself but its gonna have to wait. My backhoe is down as is my plow truck and 4 wheeler . Remember that movie "Maximum overdrive" where all the machines rebel ? I think this is a mutiny !
Mine needs to be plowed to get it good enough to fix. :-\
Your's is looking good.
?????????
Must be the southern humor. :D
I guess its a location joke, you just have to be there !
Well, I know it sounds like deja vu but the excavator is supposed to be here by the end of the week
I could not get the original guy to call me back, and I have been leaving messages since late february. I finnally ended up behind him on the road and followed him to where he was going. Got him to visit my place and when he saw what a blivit he left me with, he apologized for jamming me up. He also only charged me a grand for the excavator time, I think he actually felt embarassed for not returning my calls and leaving my site in a chaos.
Got a new company to come in and finish the work. They are filling a huge slope two houses away from me. They have 3 trucks hauling blasted ledge some 60 trips a day. I will try for a picture of that work because it is looking quite nice.
they brought in the second excavator yesterday and told me it should be in my yard this week, so I am scrambling to clean up my blivit.
Let's hope that this time it really happens. Frustrating to have to wait so long to be able to spend your hard earned money on someone so slow to react and receive it.
Learned something new this morning...and that is what a blivit is. :D :D
Not a term I use or hear, so had to look it up. Good description of the mess you were left with. Guess it is a military WWII term used to indicate more crap than a 5# bag can hold, or similar mess. :) :)
The way I always understood it was "10 lbs of crap in a 5 lb sack"
Yes it dates to WWII dad was a torpedo mate on a destroyer. What a great name destroyer. :o
ok updated my Java for AOL and hope I get the new resizer. If so here are a few shots.
OK still can't get the new java uploader to run and even have a password at java so give me a minute and I go back to doing it my self
ok few shots the old way
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10064/my_drive_today.jpg)
this is a shot of my drive today, it should change soon(tomorrow)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10064/the_fiasco_I_was_left_with.jpg)
this is part of the fiasco I was left with
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10064/work_at_neighbors.jpg)
this is an example of the work at my neighbors by the company that will be here tomorrow
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10064/lt70nice.jpg)
the LT70 just for color
Gday
Woodmills its Looking Good Your not Mucking Around Mate ;) ;D ;D 8) 8) 8)
Quote from: Tom on December 06, 2008, 05:51:18 PM
Mine needs to be plowed to get it good enough to fix. :-\
Dont worry I got it Tom ;) :D :D ;D ;D that sounds like the roads downhere Mate ;) :D :D :D ;D ;D
Reguards Chris
what a difference a day with a good operator makes.
here are two shots at bad sun angle but, man it looks much better already
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10064/today_1.jpg)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10064/today_2.jpg)
Maybe I should haul my grader up there and finish it for you and after go to Connies,opps guess Connies isn't there anymore!
connies on 102?
it may still be there, but not the whole building there are 3 or 4 other stores and a pizza place.
They had super Sea Food and lots of it!
another half day of excavator and truck and.........O my god what a difference a good operator makes.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10064/work1.jpg)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10064/work2.jpg)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10064/work3.jpg)
Wide and flat who could ask for more!! :D 8) 8) 8) 8)
Are you planning on bringing tractor trailers in and out?Nice and wide.
Stonebroke
Yes the whole plan is to get the long tractor trailers in here and not have to drive to deliver the logs
good plan. You are a sawyer not a truckdriver, right.
Stonebroke
Looks good.Tell others about the great job he is doing for you.
YES YES YES
What a great job even longer and wider now
Maybe some more work after the long weekend but he has other fish to fry first, then some ledge rock to firm it all up
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10064/and_even_wider.jpg)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10064/and_now_longer.jpg)
woodmills1
Did he just move dirt around that was already there, or hauled some fill in to make the great drive-in?
Do you have any problem with water going down your drive and onto the highway? That would present a problem around here. And would require a culvert in the ditch along that highway.
he has actually hauled out around 30 loads of fill and topsoil. If you look at the early shots the first guy left a mountain of subsoil that today al kennedy spread to bring the whole drive level. the water runs on the side of the road to a drain down by my house drive, it never hits the road. I have anothe 30 or 40 loads of topsoil to the left of the in shots and way to the right of the out shots. We are going to put a foot of blasted ledge on top of what you see in the most recent shots
Jim Unbelievable difference. It doesn't even look like the same place. The 4500 and The blue ox took up the whole entrance before. I don't think you are goin to know what to do with all the room. Miss your old mill yet?????
If there is an upside of a slow economy, it tends to weed out the slipshod outfits like the first guy you had in there. When times are good, all those morons runng around giving lowball prices makes it hard for the contractors that do good work make decent money sometimes. So I like to see those guys go belly up. I work for an asphalt paving contractor, we deal with those issues all the time.
Yes the drive really is much wider, but that was what was supposed to happen last fall. I don't understand about the first guy, because he has what I thought was a reputable business and it is long standing.
At first I did miss the LT40, I guess the confidence I had in knowing just what it and I could do together was what I missed, however 20 more minutes on the new "no longer bob's" LT70 and I won't be looking back. As Kathy and I talked last night we named our new mill.......no longer Bob's and we also named your mill......"Bob's first mill"................ :D :D :D :D
here are some shots after two trucks all day bringing in a foot of blasted ledge and taking out the top soil.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10064/a_foot_of_blasted_ledge.jpg)
a foot or so of blasted ledge
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10064/fill_dirt_and_ledge.jpg)
some fill dirt and a good shot of the ledge
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10064/topsoil_going_out.jpg)
the topsoil going out
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10064/from_the_street.jpg)
the view from the street
Looks great ,do you chink the ledge with fines of some sort?
the ledge was pretty good for having fines but it is a bit bumpy, will drive on it for awhile and make some decisions on topping it. If you thought yesterdays shot were good look at what we did today. Me on my new CAT takin out apple trees and movin rocks, Al Jr. on the excavator and Al Sr. on the D-4.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10064/found_a_place_to_put_big_rocks.jpg)
we found a place for the big rocks, right on the fire pit that I had put one layer of large rock behind 6 years ago, this defined the edge and gave us a berm to push against.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10064/behind_fire_pit.jpg)
here is a view behind the fire pit. I took out 6 more apples between 6:50 and 9:00 AM with the Cat to give them room to move the rest of the back of the drive easily. I felt like a reasonable machine guy while moving the trees, but when it came to scooping rocks into the bucket later I was a rank amatur.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10064/back_to_front.jpg)
Here is the back to front view, with the trailer turn around in the foreground. Man am I happy 8)
Gday
Woodmills well you should be happy Mate ;) :D ;D You n da boys have done an awsome job whatta difference ;) ;D ;D 8) 8) 8) I gotta pick up Me game ;) :D :D :D :D ;)
Reguards Chris
I sure am happy! :o :o :o :o
Glad to see you finally got it the way you wanted it to be. It looks great!
I laughed when the kennedys said they would have me workin lika gentleman in no time.
I am working like a gentleman and not even on the drive yet. Still over in the top soil but they only got 4 more rock loads to do tomorrow. Man I am lovin it. 8) 8) 8)
here is a shot of the top coat I did in the last 3 days, nice reprossessed asphalt on the first third and chrushed and screened brick on the rest. looks and drives great
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10064/finished.jpg)
Looking good Woodmills, They must of gotten soft in NH since I used to pave there. Doesn't look like there is a swale at the street! ;D ;D