Operation: Clean Paws (Part Four)

The weekend before last Dave went out into the yard and calculated the volume of aggregate base that we'd need to fill the paths to within 2-3 inches of the top of the wood edging. Can you believe that we needed about 10 yards? That is a LOT of base rock! Especially considering that we would still need about 3-4 yards of the decorative top gravel that we'll put on later.

He arranged to have the whole ten yards (not the hit 2004 movie) delivered to the house on Friday afternoon. There is no delivery charge for in-town deliveries with a purchase of at least ten yards. And we used a 10% discount coupon, too. The delivery guy was supposed to call us before he arrived so we could tell him where to dump the rock. However, right when Dave and I were pulling up to the house we spied the dump truck coming in to the court. Good thing, too, because Dave quickly realized that the truck was full of the wrong kind of rock.

We wanted aggregate base, which is 3/4 inch diameter rock and everything smaller. What they brought us initially was 3/4 inch diameter rock only. Dave told the guy to stop dumping after the first 2 yards were dumped and made arrangements to get the correct product delivered later that afternoon. Meanwhile Dave and I set to work shoveling the pile away from the soon-to-be boat driveway so the real rock could be dumped there later. It took us less than an hour to realize that we could just spread it all out in a thin layer throughout the path system just to get rid of it since they don't take returns to the rock yard. Oh well...

Finally the right rock arrived. Soon after, luckily for us, my parents arrived with an extra wheelbarrow and square point shovel (most importantly, however, was the arrive of my dad and his muscles).
My mom and I went to Roseville to run an errand while Dave and my dad started in on moving the aggregate base into the paths. By the time my mom and I arrived back to the house (less than two hours later) the boys were basically done! I couldn't believe it! They had even begun tamping it down.

Here you can see the layer of 3/4 inch rock with the untamped aggregate base on top:

So the rest of the weekend was spent making the base for the garbage can hut, creating a concrete runner under the trailer gate (to prevent Potatoes from digging his way out), weeding the garden, and finishing our wiring project from a few weeks back.

Here's the wooden form for the anti-Potatoes concrete runner:
Once my dad had finished the top of the concrete so it was nice and smooth we pressed each dog's paw into it. I didn't take a picture but their little prints are sooooooooo cute!
We're so close to being done! Now we need to acquire a few yards of decorative gravel for the top later (either quarter minus blue or decomposed granite), install the pavers for the clothes line and the Potatoes fence runway (where he runs back and forth along the fence), and landscape. It already looks so much nicer (and organized!). It has been oodles of work but we're very pleased with it so far and are not dreading the upcoming rains anymore!