27 September 2019
Nate got here just before 9 and we continued
where the wall building left off yesterday.
Tammy and Jake arrived late morning to join in the fun. Shortly thereafter, Dave Todd, our
across-the-road neighbor, came over to tell Tammy that the D&F Paving stone
and gravel pit was again selling to other contractors. Tammy called the pit and, after some
pleading, was allowed to buy a load of (somewhat dirty) A-stone, which Nate
promptly went to fetch. At lunch time,
my wall building career came to an end (at least for this season), as the
afternoon had to be spent loading Delores for our annual logging trip, which
starts tomorrow. At quitting time for
this week, another 84 feet of stone wall was complete, bringing the two week
total to 179 feet constructed; only 133½ feet to go. The lake level now is 13½ inches below the
top of our dock and the lake temperature still is a very swimmable 64°F.
26 September 2019
You’ll recall (I’m sure!) that on 5 February 2016 Jim Ploof moved a
mountain of “excess” rocks from by the house out to what became three large
piles on the edge of the woods by the road.
We used up the first pile building the stone walls along the south side
of the driveway and southwards along the road.
Much of the second pile was used earlier this week. However, as of yesterday, if the wall along
the road is built any further northwards, access to the second pile will be
blocked. So, when Nate appeared today at 8:30, I was busy moving the rest of that
second pile from in the woods to the road side of where the wall will be built. Nate fired up Tammy’s Kubota and we attacked
the pile in concert, salvaging several bucket-loads of prime topsoil, which we
used to backfill behind the wall on the north side of the driveway. That mostly done, Nate and I continued
building wall… ever higher, ever longer.
Tammy and Jake pulled in mid-morning and went to work building the
gravestone steps outside the Shop door.
Shortly after they finished that job, it started to sprinkle; then it
started to rain. Time for lunch! By the time lunch was over the rain she was a
pouring! So Tammy and her crew packed up
their tools and the extra gravestones, then departed, as hoisting heavy,
slippery rocks onto a stone wall is simply a great way to get hurt. Since I had a raincoat on (and am not too bright), I then spent a
delightful (sic) hour completely cleaning up the area where rock pile #2 had
been. After that, I gave the Kubota a
much-needed hose bath and headed for the showers myself.
25 September 2019
Found, when I opened up the barn this morning,
that Tammy and her guys had not only gotten soaked yesterday, they also had gotten
VERY muddy, as evidenced by the condition of my Kubota. Tammy’s machine, in contrast, was fairly
clean, having been left outside in the rain last night. She and her guys got here about 8:30. We spent the morning building the steps for
the barn’s people door. Those steps,
built from the 2′ x 1′ x 4″ gravestones Nate retrieved the other day, span a
linear distance of 6 feet and have a vertical rise of 20 inches plus ¾″ of
additional rise due to pitching the stones ⅛″ per foot for drainage. As the stones stack on top of one another to
form the steps, obviously we started with the stones furthest from the barn,
building upwards towards the building.
Equally obvious, placing that first stone precisely in the right spot was
critical to the steps reaching the door threshold perfectly. Enter the pro from Goshen, Ms. Tammy Walsh,
whose magnificent craftsmanship resulted in the top stones on the steps sliding
under the threshold with less than ¹/₃₂″ of gap. WOW!!!!
We then moved around to the backyard in order to build steps for the
Shop’s exterior door, coming up one plastic pail short of the drainage stone
needed for the base of those steps. So
back to wall building we did go. By the
end of the day (1) we had the wall along the north side of the driveway
complete except for two capstones, (2) 20 feet of the wall base along Lake Dunmore
Road was done, and (3) we all fully understood why one uses A-stone vice 6″
minus to fill the inside of the walls… what a pain in the rear it is working
with the latter.
24 September 2019
While Chree and I were off gallivanting around
Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire (on a tour sponsored by our bank, during
which we did see the mother of all retaining walls), Tammy, Nate, and Jake
continued wall building. Obvious once
the wall on the south side of the driveway was built, the monster boulder that
defines the wall corner at the northeast corner of the driveway was too high
and too close to the driveway. Using her
Kubota, Tammy was able to reposition and reorient that critter to match its
counterpart on the other side. That she
was able to accomplish that feat is truly surprising given how Bob LaPorte
struggled with that same rock with his much bigger backhoe. The team then built quite a bit of the wall
between that boulder and the oak tree before getting thoroughly soaked by a
rainsquall that hit just before quitting time.
Unfortunately, in spite of going to three different stone pits, Nate was
unable to get another load of A-stone, and had to settle for 6″minus crushed
rock… which is twice as large.
23 September 2019
What a day!
Started out without Tammy and crew… which was not expected. About 10:30, while solo wall building, Fran
Viko (Tammy’s partner) showed up, bringing news that the Lapidus’ needed some
urgent help. [Later got the voicemails Merry
had left on both my home and cell phones.]
Upon returning to Fern Lake a couple hours later, found Tammy and Jake
continuing where I had left off. Nate
arrived an hour later (he was mowing lawns all morning) and was
immediately dispatched to the local gravel pit for another load of desperately
needed A-stone… which the pit owner (D&F Paving, yes, the same company who
did a great job laying our asphalt driveway and then wanted to charge me triple
a reasonable price to sealcoat the asphalt last year) closed to other
contractors as of today. Grrrrr! So Tammy sent Nate down to RMG in Castleton
to pick up a pallet of Government-rejected military gravestones which we will
use to build steps into the barn and shop.
When Nate returned (amazingly, given how the day was going) with the
gravestones, Tammy sent him up to the Carrara Concrete facility in East
Middlebury, ‘cause they have huge stockpiles of crushed stone. Nate got there just before 4; they closed at
3:30. Double grrrr! In spite of all the drama, we got 24 feet of
the wall along the north side of the driveway completed. Over the weekend and today, many, many people
stopped by to complement the beauty of the wall finished thus far. Go team!
20 September 2019
Worked a few hours this morning hand raking the
area between Lake Dunmore Road and our beautiful new stone wall. Removed a full Kubota bucket load of small
rocks and the glass from many broken beer bottles, ‘cause we all know just how much
fun it is to motor down the highway at a zillion miles an hour and toss your
empty out the window onto a stone wall.
Such a great sound that makes!
Chree acquiesced to using the stone from a tumble down wall that is deep
in the woods on our property between our driveway and Lapidus’ driveway, once
all the other stockpiles are exhausted.
Fingers crossed that that will give us enough to complete the wall along
the road! Mr. Jonsered and I spent some
quality time cutting dead limbs in that area to create a tractor-worthy access
route. As one limb came down, rather
than let it hit me on my hardhat protected head, I fended it off with my bare
arm. Predictable result. Tammy and Jake arrived at noon, having been
seriously detained by another client.
During the afternoon, we started work on the stone wall along the north side
of the driveway, getting 20 feet of the base course laid down. Tammy’s Kubota being off on another job with
Nate today, she used mine to move material around. Afterwards, she offered to trade me her
Kubota (2,070 hours on the meter), plus the cost of this job, for my Kubota
(480 hours). I politely declined…
19 September 2019
The Goshen Mountain Landscaping crew arrived
about 8:30. Tammy and Jake worked until
lunch putting the front walkway back together… even more beautifully arranged
than the original. Now that the slate is
resting on a proper compacted stone and stone dust base and sloped to drain
back towards the driveway, we expect it to last much longer than the first
attempt. While that was being
accomplished, Nate and I continued work on the stone wall along the road south
of the driveway. After lunch, Tammy,
Jake, and I finished that section. In
four days of effort, we have completed 95 feet of wall, or about 28% of what
needs to be constructed. Doing the math,
building the entire wall will take about 14 work days. The bad news: both Tammy and I are convinced
that there isn’t enough stone for what is planned in what I thought were our
vast stockpiles.
18 September 2019
Tammy, Nate, and Jake arrived about 8:30 as I
was busy scratching away with the Kubota, digging up more small rocks for use
inside the stone walls. Over the next
several hours, we finished the stretch of wall along the south side of the
driveway. Marty, Merry, and Chree came
out to inspect progress mid-morning.
Chree particularly liked how we incorporated a maple tree into the
center of the wall… with lots of room for it to grow ever larger. Chree was not so happy (the day’s
understatement) that I authorized Tammy to buy a load of A-stone, which is
crushed rock in the 2″ to 3″ size. The
not-so-crazy reason for buying rock in Leicester is that we were spending
increasing amounts of time trying to find those size rocks anywhere on the
build site (at many dollars per hour for labor) when a couple of yards of
A-stone cost twenty bucks or so. Not
only was that far more cost effective, but the A-stone, being all jagged, makes
a much more solid wall than the round stones native to our property. Nate left after lunch for an
appointment. By the end of the
afternoon, we had laid the base for the wall along Lake Dunmore Road to the
south of our driveway and had the next course of stone pretty well done.
17 September 2019
Tammy, Nate, and Jake pulled in just before
9. A wall building we did go. By the end of the day 40 feet of the wall
along the south side of the driveway had been finished. Chree blessed the construction style, though
she wasn’t exactly in raptures. What’s
left of me is here to tell you that trying to physically keep up with two guys
⅓ my age for two days is just a tad exhausting… but so much fun!
16 September 2019
A very busy day!!!! Tammy arrived shortly after 8:30, followed
soon thereafter by Nate and Jake Grandfield, another of her strong-backs. After getting two rocks laid for the terminus
of the wall on the south side of the driveway, Tammy left for a meeting in
Brandon. Nate and Jake used that hiatus
to mow Kate’s and Marty & Merry’s lawns, for which Goshen Mountain
Landscaping has standing lawn care contracts.
I chalk-marked the slate front walkway, then took a picture of the
layout so that we can reassemble it once a proper underlayment has been put
in. Nate and Jake removed the slate,
whereupon I excavated three Kubota bucket loads of dirt and a thin layer of stone
dust from the walkway. Nate fetched a
yard of ¾″ crushed stone with Tammy’s dump trailer, a portion of which was
compacted into the walkway hole. That
stone base was covered with filter fabric, then a full inch of stone dust. A few minutes after Tammy’s return, Bob
Laporte arrived with his super-sized backhoe.
He quickly moved the monster cornerstone rock and it’s siblings out of
the way of the significant depression that existed on the northeast corner of
the driveway. I then drove Bob back to
his place (a mile down the road) to fetch his dump truck and 7 yards of bank
run gravel, which was deposited into said depression. Under Tammy’s direction, Bob used his backhoe
to reposition the five huge rocks that there was no way our Kubotas would ever
move. Just before he departed, Bob
pulled a bunch of good wall building rocks out of the woods on the north side
of the driveway, as they were beyond the reach of our Kubotas and too big to
retrieve by hand. Is it lunch time
yet? After inhaling some sustenance, we
spent the afternoon laying the base rocks for the stone wall on the south side
of the driveway, getting 30 feet (about half that distance) done by quitting
time. Chree arrived home from a week’s
journey in the midst of that work. When
she toured the build site after Tammy and the guys had left, Chree had some
concerns about how the wall would look when complete…
15 September 2019
With my Kubota, demolished an old stone wall on
the south side of the driveway and prepared the dirt base for the new
wall. After lunch, removed brush that
has been impeding play on the 16th fairway of our Frisbee golf
course. The lake level now is 13″ below
the top of the dock and the water temperature is 65 degrees.
14 September 2019
Eight o’clock found me up t’ Tammy’s, shoveling
crushed stone into 4½ gallon plastic
buckets… eight of them this time. Returned
to Fern Lake and excavated the area under the Shop exterior door threshold
where the too steep (and thus much too slippery) gravestone ramp is being
replaced with shallow gravestone steps.
(Note: At the time the ramp was being built, I was told in quite strong
terms that was a bad idea. Lessons
learned.) Tammy wants 8″ of drainage
stone under the steps, so once the hole was the right size and depth, I dumped
in all eight plastic buckets so carefully filled this morning. One guess as to whether that was enough
stone. So, late morning, I returned to
the scene of the crime (good thing Tammy lives only 10 minutes away) and stole
another eight buckets of stone. Fingers
crossed that this will be enough to finish the Shop door steps base plus the
house drip edges. Saw Tammy this trip
and we decided that she’d better bring another whole load of stone when we work
on the front walkway and barn steps.
More lessons learned. Went to
Goodro’s after leaving Tammy’s to buy back the Loctite PL Premium®
construction adhesive and the Geocel Pro Flex® clear flexible
caulking that I returned for credit after finishing the front steps
project. Just ‘cause I could, spent the
afternoon playing with the Kubota.
Completely took apart the remnants of a stone wall that bordered the
driveway north side inwards from the road.
Purpose of that oh, so satisfying destruction was to establish a level 4
feet wide base for a rebuilt stone wall that will connect into the one along
the road. Also removed a hillock between
our mailbox and the roadside phone pole.
Rocks in that hill have been the nemesis of my lawn mower blade all
summer. Nevermore!
13 September 2019
Tammy Walsh (owner of Green Mountain Landscaping) and her long-time helper, Geryll Robinson, got here just before 9. We toured the property discussing the long list of one major and nine minor projects that have been awaiting Tammy’s availability. The big one is to construct a 3′ high by 330′ long stone wall along our Lake Dunmore Road property line and part way down our driveway. Tammy and Ger left again to get 5 cubic yards of crushed gravel needed to finish the surface between our asphalt driveway and the barn’s overhead door. While they were gone, completed most of Delores’ reactivation checklist, as our annual logging extravaganza is but two weeks hence. Mouse damage this year was very limited until a couple of months ago, as we used Sniff ‘n’ Stop® packets throughout the RV over the winter (my sister-in-law Mary’s recommendation). Unfortunately, didn’t notice the note on the box that they’re only effective for six months or so until far too late. Once Tammy and Ger finished spreading the crushed gravel, I used Tammy’s plate compactor to flatten the bejesus out of the dirt while the two women started repairing damage to our concrete paver patio. Four areas had settled (the worst being in the critical area around the drain that catches water coming off the roof valley) and the polymeric sand used to bind the pavers together had not properly bonded when the patio was constructed, leaving many deep cracks. Nate Clark (one of Tammy’s other employees… and her nephew) showed up early afternoon and was promptly dispatched to get a load of ¾″ crushed stone, as I needed a small (sic) quantity to fill in roof edge drip lines around the house and to top off the stone and wood crib walkway down to Marty & Merry’s. I took six plastic buckets worth of stone off Nate’s load, thinking that would be more than enough for my needs. Before sending Nate up to her place in Goshen to dump the rest of the load, Tammy asked me at least three times if I was sure I had enough. You can guess the correct answer, which I came up with right after Nate left… By quitting time, our patio was completely repaired and I had a long list of tasks to complete over the weekend which will expedite the work starting Monday morning.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)