Mr. Zucca: That’s no rock. That’s a ledge.
Bill Cole: What Mr. Blandings means is, what precisely is a ledge?
Mr. Zucca: A ledge is like a big stone. Only it’s bigger.
Jim Blandings: Like a boulder!
Mr. Zucca: No, like a ledge.

I put in way more than an hour at the gravel pile today and I have three blisters on my palms, one of which is huge, to show for it! I wanted to take advantage of the weather, which started off ominous, but greatly improved. It also helped that I didn’t have to borrow a wheelbarrow and that my body is reacclimatising to being worked hard. I’ll be stiff tomorrow, no doubt about it, but I’m not fatigued by the hard work today.

Moreover, my work queue is currently worrisomely empty, which means that I’m not getting work this week for whatever reason, or that it’s all going to land at once and I won’t see daylight for a bit. I’m hoping on the latter and making good use of my time off.

I alternated between raking, shoveling, hauling, spreading, and picking out giant rocks, trying to work the pile evenly. I didn’t make a firm decision as to what size rocks could be leveled out and which went into my piles when it came to smaller stones, but the very large rocks that needed two hands were obviously set aside for future landscaping projects.

While I would be very grateful for a neighbour with a tractor or bobcat to come help me finish leveling and packing the pile,  I think this is one project I’ll be able to finish on my own if I have to.

The reason I struggled so much with the RV pad, besides simply being out of shape, is that I had to shift so much material eastward to get the pad the width I wanted. With this pile, I’m just trying to get it as flat as possible and don’t care as much about the width.

I’m really surprised and pleased by my progress today. I can tell that the big thing I need to work on is reducing the entrance slope to make it easier to back in with a trailer.