24.05.2025 The big [long] day!

 ~o~

  Saturday 24th 45F/7.2C[6.45] Overcast after light overnight rain. A mixed forecast.

  Up at 5.10 after another busy night. My usual, morning back pain. Hands aching from overwork. The chest pain did not return. Despite working until nearly ten last night on lopping and sawing the felled oaks.

 I have moved the car back to its remote location. Just in case I need it. 

 There aren't many felled trees left to reduce to manageable proportions. The front loader will be able to work without hindrance. By the time it arrives. My wife's gooseberry bushes are about to be buried. They have thrived and spread in the deep shade. I don't remember being offered any fruit.

 I can fell further trees to left and right if need be. It all depends how much waste soil is produced. By the excavation work on the original parking space. The already graveled area needs no excavation. Since I was responsible for adding the gravel myself.  

 My Heinz salad cream order is arriving around lunch time. With Bisto on the same shelf in my [IKEA] pantry cupboard. Nobody could ever accuse me of going native. 

 6.30 Time to get the chainsaw out. A battery powered DeWalt. Not some screaming, infernal combustion object. With [usually] no silencer and audible from several villages away. As some psychopathically selfish barsteward saws logs. Day after day after day. Year and decade round.

 7.00 Dripping with sweat.  Back in for a rest and to cool off. I have cleared the felled oak trees into a heap. What am I to do with them all? Keep the trunks for future firewood. Recycle the twigs and branches. They are out of the way for the moment. That's all that matters.

 9.30 Sunny periods. The contractor arrived just after 8.00 and started digging. His mate arrived 20 minutes later with a wheeled front loader. About a 1/3 of the original parking space is now about 20cm or 8" lower.  

 With the soil being tipped and compressed on the low area. Where I cut the trees down. Beyond the gravel as planned. Both are obviously well practiced in machine operating skills.

 At the present rate of progress the excavation should be completed in under five hours. With a useful gain in garden area in the north. Hopefully at the same level as the finished gravel. They have now both gone off to collect something. I am tired and would like a nap to catch up. Though I didn't. I fetched a picnic chair and sat and watched. I made them coffee at 12.00.

14.00 The job is going well. Over 3/4 of the area is now covered in self-stabilizing gravel. Lots of it compressed with a plate vibrator. There is also lots of driving on the surface with a 2½ ton loader with a full bucket. 

 I felled another oak tree to allow the loader to reach further along the bank with waste soil. The huge mound of gravel has really gone down quite quickly. The gravel man turned up to have a look. To see when they wanted the granite chippings delivered tomorrow.

 17.00 Still at it. They have run out of gravel. So we'll need to get some more. At my expense.

 18.15 A huge lorry load of light grey, granite chippings are here. The driver has gone back for another 5m^3 of self stabilizing gravel. He'll be back soon but the workers have just left. The ruts were [deeply] disappointing after the gravel had been compressed three times! They assured me the lorry wouldn't damage the surface. Now they were talking about bringing a larger, plate vibrator. Tomorrow's forecast rain is a likely problem. 

 19.00 The extra gravel as been delivered. I had to cover it against the rain. I should be having dinner by now. 

 

  ~o~