Driveway Project In Process

It's been a decade or so since we graveled our driveway.  It's about 0.4 miles long so it's a big job.  We are also putting a roundabout in by the barn and adding an RV parking spot.  My helper, Van worked all week on this project.

Van used the bobcat to cut out the sod and do some grading to soften the slopes.

We've had a dozen 20 ton loads of gravel so far and there's more to go to finish it next week.

This is the new roundabout looking back at the RV spot.  Van using his van to pack down the new gravel on the roundabout.

In the middle of that activity, I had the fuel tanks refilled.

Joan did some bush-hogging and mowing this weekend.  She parked the Kubota at the tanks on Saturday night and I fueled her up.  When she went to go out on Sunday morning, she found a flat tire.

I looked at it and thought It had enough air in it that I could drive it into the barn to the compressor.  I was wrong.  It immediately started to come off the rim.

So I parked it where it was, put the bucket down to lift it up, and took the tire off.  When I got the tire in the barn, I noticed that the valve was gone.  At that point I punted for Van to clean up my mess.

Speaking of messes that I leave for Van, here's another one.  Pull cord on weed-whacker didn't retract.

Joan also was out on the zero turn. She was happily cutting down toward the pond when she encountered a deep tractor rut obscured by grass.  It almost thru her off the machine.  It did throw her flip flops off her feet and she promptly ran over them and mowed them.

In between equipment follies, I got out the crossbow and sighted it in.

This is a 40 yard group.  I can live with that.

I also got the 30-06 out and got a few shots downrange with a couple different loads.  It's shooting respectably.  Only about 5 weeks till we head to New Mexico for elk.

So I ended up leaving the tractor (minus a wheel) in the middle of the work area where Van is trying to finish spreading gravel.  I'm sure that he will handle it.

Joan and I did the camera tour.

The plots are looking ok.  This is the brassica overseed in the soybeans.

My "no-till" plots have some green up.

It's a little unclear how much is what I planted and how well it will fill in.

The pumpkin patch is a weedy mess.  There are some orange pie pumpkins visible.

I spent some time on invasives this weekend.  This is Autumn Olive.

I'm trying cutting them down and spraying the stump with concentrated roundup.

The seek write up on this invader.

I also am finding a bit of Tree of Heaven.  I had pretty much eradicated this invader but it re-emerges whenever the ground is disturbed.

The neighbors did some timbering and they have quite a bloom of it going on.

This is a new one showing up.  Seek tells me it is Chinese Bushclover.

Meanwhile, the critters don't seem to care.

Twin fawns.

This doe doesn't look that healthy to me.

Predator in the tree.

Poults growing up.

And the usual suspects.

Coyote eating pears.

A few bucks.