Site Work Prep

A yard would also provide space for a dumpster, vehicle parking, and construction equipment. I spoke with a Free Acres neighbor, Joe Romano, who is a contractor. His son Al has a Bobcat with almost every attachment. It would work fine to convert the back into a construction yard.

The first Saturday planned for earth moving was rained out. I had to cancel the delivery of 30 tons of DGA (dense graded aggregate) on Friday. The next week it happend. Friday the DGA was delivered and Al came by to dropoff his equipment.

He was back at 7:00 am to start the work. First, the topsoil and organic material had to be scraped off and piled off to the side. We'll save this until the final landscaping which is later (much). Al continued to level out the area by moving material aside into an area that will be filled-in in the future.

The previous week we had set up his laser level and driven stakes to mark where the finished grades would be with a 1/8" pitch to the rear of the future driveway. He also pulled out 2 small stumps with the backhoe attachment. After lunch, he started spreading the DGA. The 30 tons only covered an inch or so, but it's only temporary.

On Sunday the tree guys showed up to take down 2 trees. The oak was in the future driveway, and the other ash tree was off to the side and insect infested. I had the Free Acres forestry committee pre-approve the tree cutting as is required in the Constitution By-laws.

We left the oak and ash logs in 15 foot lengths so they can be cut up into planks. When Al came back he was able to pile up the logs with the Bobcat. Without that, they would have been left where they fell. It also made short work of collecting the firewood pieces in the Bobcat bucket.