Why is it when you have the opportunity to sleep in it just doesn’t happen??? I woke at 6am (even though I didn’t set an alarm today) to singing birds and the sounds of the country. While it was certainly cold, I didn’t get the fog that was blanketing Melbourne. In fact I was greeted with a spectacular pre-sunrise view.
I ate breakfast as the sun came up, then headed over to the driveway to spread the carpet before the gravel arrived. Didn’t take long at all to complete that job, now I just needed some gravel.
With nothing else to do and some time to kill, I took the bobcat out onto the road to do some work on the drain along the front… that was my biggest mistake… seconds later I was bogged!! Crap… how do you get a bobcat out of deep muddy clay??
I walked back to camp and brought the car around hoping I could winch it out. Took a bit of mucking around, but eventually I was able to pull it free. I’ll stay well away from the mud in future.
So, I spent my morning doing odd jobs with the bobcat. I filled in holes and dug some more loose soil so I have a good pile to access when I need it. Finally, sick of waiting I decided to build a log bridge across the creek using the logs I had removed from the cattle ramp. I grabbed my fist log and motored up the back of the block in the bobcat. I had just dumped my first log when I turned around and saw a truck and trailer heading past the block up the road… damn I thought… that will be my gravel.
Sure enough I got a call a short time later from the driver asking where I was!
Anyway, Wal arrived with the gravel. I asked him to drop the first load just inside the gate.
The second half of the load I asked him to drop at the other end of the driveway. He was about to dump it when he asked “Do you just want me to drive it on for you?”
Now that was easier!!!
He dropped the second half of the load and spread it along the driveway. I quickly realised that I was going to need another load of the same, so he said he would be back in a few hours.
Needing some more cash to pay him, I jumped in the car and raced down to the Euroa Coles Express to use the ATM. Was then that I realised I was a little hungry and so I treated myself to a Kebab from the roadhouse… must have been hungrier than I thought because I devoured it before I was half way back to Violet Town!!
I jumped back in the Bobcat and started to spread the gravel pile along the entrance to the block. All I can say is thank god Wal was able to spread the gravel as he dumped it because it was very slow going with the bobcat. I had only finished to just inside the gate when he arrived with the second load.
Now driving the gravel on like this must be cheating, but who cares… it is so much easier!!
I spent the rest of the afternoon filling in the gaps. I ended up pulling up most of the carpet as the truck had moved it under the gravel 🙁 oh well, was a good idea in theory!
Once the drive was done, I started spreading the remainder of the gravel along my path to from camp to the shed… that was slow going as my pile of gravel was just inside the front gate!
I worked pretty much until I lost the light and tomorrow will only have to finish spreading the gravel along the path.
So that’s it, we have a driveway 🙂
I’ll take a video on the way out tomorrow so your can see the finished product.
