Driveway Day 3

I went out after work today to scope out the progress on the driveway. They've dug out more sand from the hole which is turning into quite a large affair! The sand has been spread on the driveway and turn-around bay, but its quite wet so they're going to leave it a few days to dry out before they compact it and roll it. Once its compacted and rolled flat, they'll put the blue chip on top. Not too sure when that will be at this stage.

Sand spread on driveway

Loading the digger onto the truck

Levelling out the driveway with the tractor

Turn-around bay filled with sand (can see how soft it is in places)

The hole extended somewhat

The hole

Piles of stumps that are now in the hole

Another pile removed

View from the corner post looking towards the hole

The Driveway Continues...

Some more pics of the driveway progress taken after work today. Things are progressing quickly and it looks like they are doing a super job.

Sand on driveway over base course

More sand

Looking back towards the road

Turn-around bay with base course filled in

Turn-around bay again

Digger loading sand into the truck

Lining up for sand

Taking excess topsoil away

Digger on the move

Truck taking sand to the driveway

Dumping sand on the driveway

The hole filling with the water

Topsoil that was removed from the driveway and turn-around bay

What is left of the cattle yards

We have half a ... DRIVEWAY!

The driveway was started yesterday by John Lamont Contracting. We were actually expecting them to start to today but they finished another job early so they got stuck straight in yesterday afternoon. I popped out during my lunch break today to get some pics. Its amazing how much dirt those machines can move, I'm afraid the green machine was somewhat put to shame!

First layer of base course

2nd layer of base course

Top soil dug out of turn-around bay

Turn-around bay and cottage driveway

The digger extracting the sand

The digger down the hole with the pile of sand and the piles of topsoil down the hedge

Some of the topsoil that was removed from the driveway and turn-around bay

After work, Chris and I both went out for another nosey. The progress was quite amazing, those operators can sure shift some dirt!

Getting a bit arty farty

What in the hang is going on here? scratch... scratch...

Now that's one big hole

Yip, a big hole alright!

Hellooooo over there!

Amazing property

More photos of our wonderful piece of land

Just because...

Chris inspecting the turn-around bay

View across to Pukekura

That's a lot of dirt!

And just so it doesn't feel too left out... the Green Machine!

Quick trip out today

Chris and I both went out to the block today. I was supposed to be studying but was going a bit stir crazy being cooped up at home and since Chris was only planning on going out for a couple of hours I thought I would tag along.

We started off with an inspection of Chris' work yesterday. He got quite a bit done and the block looks like quite a huge area with no fences. There's quite a bit of rubbish to get rid of but we'll deal with that later... Anyone want some posts?

Chris wanted to mark out the driveway for the contractor who is starting the driveway next week. While he did that, I sprayed along the fence-lines and spot-sprayed some thistles. We also measured up a couple of the paddocks and I was very pleased with the sizes we'd chosen to make them. Its going to be great once its all fenced.

Land clearance continues...

Chris has been a very busy bee out at the block. I've been stuck inside studying most evenings (am studying for Professional Accounting School and my Professional Competence Examination 2 in otherwords PAS/PCE2) which will keep me out of trouble until the end of October.

Chris has been pulling out the old fences as the cattle moved around the property. They went back to the neighbours place today so he was able to pull the last of the fences down, and pull the posts out with the green machine aka the digger.

Also on the cull list are the old cattle yards. Work dismatling these came to an abrupt halt a couple of weeks ago when the digger suffered a temporary technical difficulty (Chris broke a hydraulic hose) but after a relatively painless hose transplant, its been back in action as of last weekend. Today the remaining rails and posts were pulled apart and all that's left is a big pile of rubbish.

Chris also installed the meterbox today, so pretty soon we'll be able to have the power connected.

The driveway is on schedule to start early next week, which will be a major project.

In other news, we've given the final nod to the draughtsman to prepare full working drawings of the cottage. Once these have done, we'll sigh the contract and off it will go to council for building consent. Once this comes through the builders will be ready to start.