Date: December 29, 2025 - January 23, 2026
With the stucco done, I could proceed backfilling the gravel and dirt against the building. And as mentioned in the last post, Ryan excavator extraordinaire, who was chomping at the bit to start the rock work, said he would bring his equipment up on New Years eve. A motivational factor was the sub-freezing temperatures had kicked in again, and my temporary water supply system (in place since the project started in mid 2024) was using an above-ground garden hose. That meant that when temperatures were expected to drop below 30°F, I had to remember to disconnect everything and drain the hose and lines. If I forgot then they would freeze solid. The purple-highlighted pics below show the west and east side places the black water line & hose was exposed to the weather:
Luckily the brothers helping Curly with the stucco were available for hire on the 29th to help with the water line and gravel shoveling. If we got that done then the site would be ready enough for retaining wall construction.
We covered the west side with gravel, placed the drain pipe for the roof gutter, and covered that. We then covered the new deck piers so I could get the tractor back there for some gravel fill on the east side. Turning the tractor around I was able to dig a section of trench for the water line between the well house and the shop excavation. The requirement for the pipe coming out of the pump was just to be deep enough to not freeze. However there was another line to run. Since I want the spring water overflow from the well house to be able to drain into the wet root cellar, the ditch needed to run downhill from the spring house to the root cellar. However the hill has a little rise in that spot which meant the ditch needed to be 2-3 feet deep on the left side of this pic:
Not unexpectedly I ran into some tough albeit rotten rock. Since the backhoe couldn't handle it at the angle of attack available, my helpers dug that section by hand.
My helpers also uncovered the black pipe running out of the pump house by hand. I needed a 90° fitting to patch the new into the old but couldn't find one after searching my stashes of fittings, so we called it a day and I drove into Mars Hill Hardware to pick one up. Then I had to drain the hose etc.
The next day, the 30th, was just too friggin cold to get out there.
So the following day when I went to connect it using my new fitting, I realized that the black pipe the guys had uncovered were just the overflow drains. I dug a little deeper only to find that the pressure line was 1" PVC pipe. Damn it all to tarnation! So it was another trip to Mars Hill to get the PVC>black pipe adapter pieces. With that hurdle jumped I was able to get everything connected.
Shortly after noon the cavalry showed up
I showed Ryan the rocks I had scouted that we might harvest to supplement what had come out of the building excavation. After he did another trip to get his trackhoe they started transferring them to a staging area.
That activity was cut short when the trackhoe ran out of diesel unexpectedly. Probably just as well to quit early since it was New Year's Eve.
Ryan & Co didn't take New Year's Day as a holiday, so next day we pulled out all the suitable rocks within reach. This beauty was the upper limit of what the equipment could handle:
Since the skid steer couldn't lift it off the ground, at the end there Ryan is asking if was okay if he moved it by sliding it along the surface, which was OK by me. In the end it must have been lifted enough because it didn't create a mark in the field.
More manageable rocks from the same area:
You can see why the skid steer is the right tool to move the rooks after they've been extracted:
Staring inventory, the harvested and the two collections from the excavation:
First work on the back wall since the front wall will make it harder to access. First order of business was to remove some stumps and dig a solid starting shelf:
That big rock is on the right above because it was it could only be rolled into place. Hoofing the boulders up there where the trackhoe could pick them:
Fine tuning placement:
That first layer was all that was done by end of day:
Work continued after the weekend:
A technique these guys use that I haven't when I've built dry stacked walls is to trim problem bumps off the rocks to allow them to fit together better. They use a diamond blade saw then a power chisel to transform an almost perfect rock to a perfect one.
The target height is to support a bridge to the deck:
Final:
On January 7th they got started on the front wall. Status toward end of day on the 8th:
Wall reaches target height against the building. For some reason this particular integration point brought to mind my time spent visualizing at the beginning of building design.
We got some frigid weather on January 15 but Ryan and Brian kept at it:
Progress by Friday afternoon. The shovel leaning against the wall is for scale.
Unusually nice sunset Friday evening:
Monday saw the completion of the wall phase, except we held off on finalizing the stoop wall in front of the entry door so there would still be room to get the trackhoe up behind the building. Ryan had bid the walls at a fixed price of $12K. The last phase was raising the level of the "driveway" to the "loading dock" as well as doing the backfill around the building. Ryan was billing for this phase on an hourly basis.
Where to get the dirt? Well we still had material on the east side which we had intentionally not excavated with the original building dig.
After that dirt was used Ryan went above the upper rock wall and extended the flat spot there. I hadn't considered this as a source - I was thinking we'd have to go down the hill and reclaim fill dirt that we'd placed during the initial excavation. However it was much more convenient (and cheaper) to take dirt from close to the building.
I was relieved that that they took on the job of getting a layer of gravel in next to the building. Helper David spent his days with a shovel getting that done. Final result:
Ryan ran into some hard and tough bedrock on the corner, and we thought it might have to remain exposed. Which would have presented an obstacle to me getting the tractor around the building which has always been a goal. However when he maneuvered the trackhoe down the hill and hooked it from the other side it came right out.
We still needed more dirt to finish the job. After looking it over and discussing it with Charla, I told Ryan to keep going on that flat spot. Which amounted to cutting a road. It also allowed Ryan to get through and clean up the briars, dead trees and undergrowth that have bothered me since we bought this land. I knew I wanted to clean up that hillside to improve the ambiance of the deck, but I didn't know it was going to be so easy.
For comparison, here is how that hillside was before with it's dead locust tree:
And after (small maple tree in foreground of both).
When I saw how the trackhoe could take down a tree with full control, I knew to ask Ryan to take down a poplar tree that I should have cut down during site preparation. Its branches were already almost touching the roof, and they grow fast. For your entertainment, here is the vid at 2x playback:
Stoop complete and perfect rock at culvert head replaced with lower quality stones:
Nice rock set aside for deployment by moi:
Cipher tests the threshold.
I'm planning on dealing with that unfinished lower half of the east wall at some point down the road:
Yeah, it's a little muddy. But that will settle down pretty fast.
Next step in the outdoors: deck.
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