Quarry update

[Ljohnsaw]

At what point when you start digging does it become a quarry? Is it the percentage of rock to dirt?

So to fend off winter boredom, I'm starting a new project. Need to make a parking/passing area. I pulled out all the crummy bushes a couple weeks ago. There is a 22" drop side to side at the top where it is almost 7 foot wide and a 48" drop at the bottom where it is 14 foot wide.

I tried to borrow or rent a mini ex from a house up the block from me. No dice. My backhoe is snowbound. So my daughter suggested my trencher. Spend a day getting it going again. New battery, replace a fuel line and install a oil bath air filter.

Made a cut.

Got these rocks.

And this dirt.

So about 3:1 rock to dirt.

[Ljohnsaw]

After 5 hours:

The pile of rock grows...

The dirt, not so much.

So I'll dig about 8" to 10" below the finished height, lay big rock, smaller rocks and some sand. Then pavers. The wood dividing will have a poured concrete retaining wall parallel that will be faced with brick to match others. I will fill the foot between with dirt and some plants.

[Magicman]

Looks/sounds like you have a plan.   

[thecfarm]

Looks like you are digging taters. 

But at least you can pick them up and move them!!!



The ones dug up are about 3 feet across.
The ones on the stone wall in the background are 4-5 feet across.

[Ljohnsaw]

Yeah, a lot better than up at the cabin, for size, anyhow.

In my mind, it was going to be clean the entire grade, bring in some road base and lay some pavers. Now, it will be clear a small section down, start the next one and move those rocks onto the first area, save some dirt and move the rest to my backyard. I have a very low spot to fill with a couple yards of dirt and then plant an orange tree.

Along the top behind the soon to be retaining wall I will plant blueberry bushes.

At least it will get easier/faster as I head up the drive between it getting narrower and shallower.

[Ljohnsaw]

Got too late yesterday to get a picture. So, where it was this morning. I dug down another foot and got another great collection of rocks.

The second project, related. Adding dirt at the bottom of my property where I'm going to plant an orange tree.

The pile grew substantially today. But, again, I worked past dark.

[Ljohnsaw]

Well, I think I spent 3 half days on the first section. The part under the macro bin. It is full of the dirt separated from the rocks on left side.

Spent 2 half days on the second section.

Started this morning by doing a seat swap on the trencher. Tired of getting my butt wet on the old, cracked seat. Should have taken 5 minutes since this seat was "universal".

Not to be.

Had to make an adapter.

All good now.

After that, started on the next section. But it was a bust, literally. The drive belt for the digger chain broke. Spent the rest of the day on the phone and visiting a few parts houses. Waiting on a response from a place that has it listed for $152 to see if it's the right size.

Any places on the web I should try? The particulars: Case-Davis Fleetline 16+4. The part number I got from a place that was recommended by a place that was recommended by the Case (CNH) dealer is H209015. Measures 50.5" long and 1-9/16" wide with 5 ribs.

[newoodguy78]

Where you have the part number I'd try an agricultural CNH dealer specifically maybe one in the Midwest. Combines are full of different sized drive belts. 

[Ljohnsaw]

The CNH dealer looked it up in their "system" and it said it is no longer available.  Finally got a hold of Astec Underground (the phone number given was no good) and ordered the part - $133 delivered.  Should see it maybe next Monday?  Just in time for the rains to start again...

[Ianab]

Geology is weird like that. Go a few miles and you are in a totally different structure. Where I grew up the farm was close to the Mt, but sheltered from any serious lahar flow buy some large hills. The soil was volcanic ash all the way down. Well the first 2-300 ft anyway. The rivers eventually got down to enough old random rocks to be stable. Go to the other side of the Mt, and it's more like Cfarm's rocks, without having to dig. If they want to quarry rocks there, they just dig into a random hill, and it's assorted volcanic rocks. My other place out East was further from the Mt, and only had a light ash layer over the old  sand / mud stone. You couldn't find a real rock on the whole 300 acres, and of you got down to the mud-stone one  tracks. the track would soon turn back to slippery mud. If you wanted an all weather track, you had to get gravel hauled in. 

[Ljohnsaw]

West of me is Sierra College Ridge. The local JC, Sierra College, has a geology department and they take field trips to the ridge where the road, Sierra College Drive, cuts through. You get to examine all the layers of rocks. Some of the cuts are 40 to 50 foot deep. The ridge was once a river bottom. Probably when Mt. Lassen blew up 10,000 years ago, a mud flow made this deposit. Lassen blew up a number of times. The ridge is several hundred feet high.

I live on a mini version of that ridge that parallels the American River now impounded in Folsom Lake (Folsom Prison, Johnny Cash). 

Anyhow, in my 4 foot dig, the top 3 feet is river cobble from golf ball size up to deflated basketball size. The bottom foot was fractured small rock. Guessing two different cataclysmic events.

Still haven't found a giant gold nugget. 😔

[Ljohnsaw]

Put in some forms. 

Yesterday I mixed up about 25 sixty pound bags of cement.

This will get faced with bricks that I will split in half and capped with a full brick.

[Ljohnsaw]

Been busy building a 11x18 foot master closet for a client.

Back to my driveway. Got the belt for the trencher, only $100 🫤

Some progress this last week.
Loosen up a bit with the trencher.

Lots of dirt went to the back yard but now I'm saving some to back fill behind the wall after I pull the forms. Using a 10 foot portable wheel chair ramp.

Now I just need to mix up about 36 bags of concrete!

Still have to put in the diagonal form braces. There's 4 horizontal rebars and a vertical about every 16" or so.