Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Rock On!

Waaaaaaaay back in June I had a big truck deliver a few tons of stone for a rock retaining wall to go up our newly paved driveway.

 A large crane picked up that ton of rock and gently....

 
put it on the ground. Boy, could I use one of those things around my yard!

So all this rock had to be laid out really, really nice to curve up the drive and keep the grass where it should be and the cars off the grass.

While digging the dirt away, I discovered that we were oh so dumb and hadn't considered the electric fence wire that had been barely under the gravel driveway and now it was paved over with 3" of asphalt. Doh! We worked for over an hour feeding the wire underneath and having it finally emerge on the other side. yay!
I hired a friend of a friend of mine and they worked diligently building the wall....
until they didn't. It remained unfinished for over 5 months. I looked out of my kitchen window at piles of rock, cement, sand, buckets, tools  and debris for those long 5 months. I hate messes and this was messin' with my tidiness streak. (Trapper was telling them to hurry it along!) They left all their tools behind, including a stone cutting saw (not cheap). I called repeatedly to please come finish, to no avail. I even owed them bunches of money. 

So I called in another contractor. They fixed everything, made it all pretty and completed the wall in two days. Yay for guys that show up and do the job! Now we just have to fill in with good dirt and plant grass seed (next spring). I've since gotten solar lights to cast a nice light up the drive. I smile every time I pull in.