Step 2: A Very Tiring Thing to do

A few weeks ago (see Patio Digging), we began our neighbors' patio. For the next little while, all it did was rain and rain and rain! Finally we had a nice (dry but not at all warm), Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday all in a row. We knew this would be our last chance this fall to have a stream of nice days, so we got to work! This is step 2:

This is a tamper... it is a very heavy machine with a plate on the bottom which jiggles up and down to compact the ground underneath.

We needed this machine because we had to pack down two giant loads of gravel as a base. We got one load of big stones, recycled concrete actually, and limestone screening which is little pebbles. Here's the first layers of big stone.

You can see in this really packs the stone into smooth ground. While Robb and Koby were stamping down the ground, I was shoveling wheel barrels full of gravel and bringing them to our pit. (You can see my shovel leaning up against the fence).

We had to go in about 1 inch layers and keep it all level as we went.

Once all the big gravel was down (probably about 6-7 inches) we worked constantly late into the night on the screening.

The screening is much finer than the gravel, it almost looked like kitty litter.

I took over tamping and Robb shoveled and raked...with Koby's help of course!The best part of all this really hard labor was the fire! We love campfires, and our neighbors let us burn one the whole time! We could take little breaks and warm up by the fire. It really did help to keep the area warm, strangely enough!