Fired Road contractor. Build it myself?

[WoodChuckDad]

We are getting more stone delivered tomorrow. We have another 90 yds prepared. I was hoping to have a lot more done, but equipment failures, yesterday, cost me about 6 hours of work time.
Working on the ditch.


posing up the hill....slowly, slowly


My assistant is dutifully shaping the road.




It is beginning to take shape.

 

[airbiscuit]

I like the quality of your work. You have high standards. How long is the road you are building? If you are like the rest of us tractor nerds, you like the planning and visualization of the project almost as much as the doing. It all adds up to cool stuff, and that leads to more cool stuff and ....

 

[sixdogs]

This continues to be a great thread.

 

[ovrszd]

Great progress!!!! Thanks for the update pics. Puts the magnitude of this project into perspective.

 

[Egon]

On the portion that is not ditched yet give a try with the tractor bucket. Approach a right angle to the road and see if it works. It will only take several minutes to try.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

On the portion that is not ditched yet give a try with the tractor bucket. Approach a right angle to the road and see if it works. It will only take several minutes to try.

Sometimes it works. There is a lot of rock. I have to break thru it with the excavator. It's really a combination of a lot of different methods we are learning as we go.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

I made some more progress today.

This morning

And then the stone was delivered

I had them leave extra so I could tidy things up.

They delivered the culverts that I am going to put in.

And I got to work to and dug another 50 yds. Bit by bit we will get it done. All told the piece of road we are building is only 400 yards. But it's hard won yardage.

Eventually, it will be done and done right. The view is getting better all the time

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Looking good so far, great job.

 

[AllenBurns]

The road is looking great! I think you made the right decision by firing your contractor and you get to play with some new toys. I have some road work to do but fortunately its not as extensive as this until we cut several loads of timber.

 

[Egon]

.
One works it as required by the conditions.

You will have a nice looking road when done.

 

[hawkeye08]

Looking good

 

[airbiscuit]

And I got to work to and dug another 50 yds. Bit by bit we will get it done. All told the piece of road we are building is only 400 yards. But it's hard won yardage.

Eventually, it will be done and done right. The view is getting better all the time
View attachment 499481

How much property total? I'm wondering if once the road is built, there will be trails to blaze?

 

[WoodChuckDad]

How much property total? I'm wondering if once the road is built, there will be trails to blaze?

Property is 55 acres. About half is logged now. We may cut a few at trails thru the rest of it. I mourn the trees. I love what we have done but taking down all the trees was hard to do. 5 years from now, when the debris is cleared and all the fruit trees are in, I think I will be much happier with it.

 

[newbury]

Speaking of fruit trees how are the ones coming that you planted last summer?

 

[WoodChuckDad]

The trees are doing very well. We are planning to put in another hundred this year. I had expected to lose a lot of the ones we planted in may but in total I lost less than 20

 

[WoodChuckDad]

I have gravel all the way up to the level of the homesite. I have a 60+ yard pad to place our travel trailer on so we can stay on site when we are up there working on the house. It was a good feeling to get those last two truck loads of #3 stone spread today.

 

[sixdogs]

The trees are doing very well. We are planning to put in another hundred this year. I had expected to lose a lot of the ones we planted in may but in total I lost less than 20

We have planted maybe 700 spruce and 50 hardwood seedlings over the years, plus maybe 20 fruit trees, and got far better results letting them spend the first year in big (11" x 11") plastic pots by the house. We could water often, fertilize and give them a much better start that way. We would transplant carefully in the fall by slicing the pot off and rarely lose a tree when done this way. They get a much better start. Direct planting for us was a hassle and we lost too many trees.

 

[airbiscuit]

Once you've had a heavy rain, let us know how everything held up, and if you learned anything about any changes or "tune ups" you'd like to do.

 

[Egon]

Nice Looking Work.:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[EddieWalker]

Are you using similar sized crushed rock for your road? I don't see any fines to it and I wonder how it will lock together to form a solid, all weather road? Or is this just the base and you will be putting another layer over it with fines mixed in?