driveway "enhancements"

jambaloney here!

first off - i spent 2 weeks in early december completely re-doing the septic drain field by hand - i will spare you all picture of that! mercifully the weather held, it didn't freeze and i was able to get it working properly as opposed to the nightmare that the previous owner cooked up!!!

on top of that - our driveway is a never-ending chore..

it is always rutting and i am forever re-trenching and filling in by hand - it is a lot of work so this december - i decided to REALLY try and change the way it is fixed... look - old chain and free iron!!!

i have lots of old chain that i got over the years scavenging - i had no idea how expensive it is!!! this spring i will oil the whole lot, but right now, no time...

look at this awesome thing - too heavy for my purpose though... chain on other plates

and rutted driveway - AGAIN!!!!!!

the ruts become ditches and it gets worse near the bottom over time...

first, i dug out all the big rocks with a pick-axe - my teeth rattled for days after..

so the plan is to scrape the driveway flat....

not really much of a dent..

but this worked well..

and so did the hookup...

so i brought out the "i-don't know what"  - i found it in the trash of a nearby fisherman - i THINK it is some sort of boat spade - the rollers are definitely for a boat..

here it is behind the truck..

it worked okay

but there is still room for improvement - problem is, the soil is clay so i ended up doing the whole thing by hand anyway - no matter - the trenches needed another scraping - i put the excess soil and rocks in the ruts - no pics as it snowed the day after i was done - i do this kinda work in the rain when the soil is soft..

you can see some added soil here..

part of teh problem is that water drains around the curve at the top...

so i am trenching that curve..

and laying in perf pipe (thanks ted!)

here it is all dug out...

it needs some soil fabric wrapped around to keep the soil from clogging it (this was a bit less porous that i would have liked, i ended up using different fabric on the ends)..

and a mesh cap on the end...

i got rocks from the beach, put a small bed of them down first, and laid the pipe in place, then covered it with more rocks... the round rocks are perfect - i used a lot for the septic drain field as well....

here is a different angle...

back to the beach for more rocks - i have to use a wheelbarrow - i got stuck in the sand ONCE ;-) that is a new 9 foot surf rod i bought - no bass this day though ..

back to finish the trench

here is a good view of the finished job - it works really well - almost all the water that comes down the top part of the driveway is now diverted into a ditch - in the spring i will place a couple more in strategic places, add more rocks, grade and the driveway should be MUCH better...

things i should have bought years ago - after the trench was finished - i found i could buy a 150 foot roll of perf pipe with fabric sock included for 80 cents a foot including tax - oh well it is there for spring ;-))

it is now cold but not as cold as the rest of you - no more outdoor projects until then it warms up.


cheers all - stay warm!!