Chapter 86...The Paving Is Done

Off Grid...Chapter 86 8-13 Back to the paving job. All in all the crew was there for about 2 weeks. Today they brought in truck loads of gravel and used their roller to pack it down. The longest part was the waiting for the truck to get back from the plant. Here is the roller coming up the driveway. They got all the gravel dropped and spread out for our back parking area. I am really excited to finally see some pavement but that will be tomorrow. It took them the whole day to prep the side walkway, the back area, and the driveway. 8-14 Today is the day. Woo hoo. They are going to lay the asphalt. It is going to be a "smelly" day. I'll have to keep the house closed up. The first truck of asphalt they were able to bring the truck straight up going forward. They will be working their way down. Once they get to the driveway they will have to back up. Our first load of asphalt is at the top. They start off with the side walkway. They dump it into the smaller bucket so it can be spread out by hand. Dumping it into the spreader. It got dumped out and now they guys are starting to spread it on our walkway. Moving their way up the walkway. Next they have to roll it out to make it smooth. They do the walkway with a hand roller. The walkway is done. Yay. Now we just have to stay off of it for a little while. Now they can move onto the back parking area. Here is the "big boy" roller. Very cool. As you all know I like the big trucks, lol. I should have had Tonka toys when I was a kid. The guys are spreading out the last of the asphalt. They didn't get anymore deliveries of asphalt so that's all they can do. Now we have to wait until the weekend is over for them to finish. I apologize for any technical misuse of words about paving and the machinery used. If anyone can fill us all in please do so. After the weekend. Mike and I will seal the walkway and the parking area ourselves next year. I have no idea about the rest of the driveway. We've done sealing before and that is a messy job. Oh yay, can't wait for that. It's a good thing I saved my tar pants. 8-15 It's a Saturday so we have to wait for Monday for the paving crew to finish. Today we have peace and quiet. Woo hoo. As much as Mike and I like getting things done, we hate when it is out of our control and people are around. Tonight we were invited to a Housewarming for David's daughter. Just as we are about to leave it starts to rain. Oh no I hope it doesn't last long. Luckily by the time we got there the rain slowed and everyone had a great time. They remodeled an original farmhouse and it looks great. 8-16 I went up to check on my garden and my tomato plants are gradually getting worse. All of the tomatoes in our area have blight and it ends up killing all of them. There was just too much rain this year. I am so disappointed. The rest of my garden did really well. I can't wait to plan and plant next years garden. 8-17 It's Monday and the paver's are back. They start the day out by working on the top paving. Yay, the back parking area is finished.  Here they are rolling out the steepest part of the drive. Finally we won't need 4WD to get to the house. Mike and I had to leave for the day for an appointment. Hopefully the guys stay on track and do everything right. Mike hates leaving contractors. It rained again during the day. So far we have been lucky with the cows. Every night they have broken through our fence but they haven't trampled anything so there is no damage to the fresh pavement. 8-18 First thing this morning, Mike looks out the door and says "Lee get the camera. I know who's been eating the birdseed" Those cows are such trouble makers, lol. Mike and I ran out to David's this morning because I had so many requests for the Pecan Pie Muffin recipe that I made for the housewarming. Thank you to Jaxson's DD for sharing that wonderful recipe. Ok back home and back to the paving. Today should be the last day for the paving crew. They are ready to lay asphalt on the remainder of the driveway. We are only doing the driveway down the steepest part this year. Next year we will have it completed. This time the asphalt truck has to back up the driveway because he can't ride over the fresh pavement with his truck. Here he is backing it up. I do not envy him. The big boy is on the driveway spreading it all out. It's looking good. And They finished the paving today. Woo hoo. They will come back in a couple of weeks to do the curbing for us. Mike was told to put his tractor away. He can't drive the tractor tires over this pavement for quite some time. It's a sad day for Mike. Our back parking area is done and it is huge. It looks like Niki found a new spot. Next spring we will add gardens around the house and the building to soften the look. We got a call today that our outdoor "display" for the front of the house came in. I picked it up and it looks great. We had to special order it so we have been patiently, lol, waiting for it. Soon we will get it on the house and I will get pictures. Lisa