Next up was the hole in the yard. I got the tractor out finally (it had been sitting for a week) and started to fill in the hole. It has gotten a lot larger than it was when I first spotted it.
Even after dumping two buckets of rocks in it, I was barely starting to make a dent in it. That was all the rocks that I have picked up out of the yard so far. I will be doing more eventually.
I also went and checked on the bee traps. They were a failure. There is a nest in the tractor somewhere (my guess is the underside of the steering wheel based on flight patterns). I put four traps out today (they have no lid, so I don't just leave them out) and didn't get a single one of the bastards. Looks like they win this round. I picked up some apple juice to try for the bait, this was a recipe that I found on the internet. It was lemon juice, sugar, and a couple drops of dish soap (so that they drown).
It was still kind of wet out, despite the heat since the yard has gotten real deep; it is growing really fast right now (daily rain and just enough sun) so I didn't try to mow. It is bad enough that I will probably have to use the push mower again, I don't want to have to scrap the deck on it every 50 feet. It was getting really hot so I decided to just do tractor work. I went with the driveway because the dirt pile is still kind of damp and clumpy. So I moved the car and started working on the gravel pile and doing driveway work.
The first thing I fixed was the major bump at the edge of what was kinda sorta paved. It had developed a hole.
I also fixed down by the bend where the power pole side had sunk a lot more than the other side. It is now level (mostly) again.
The last part I did was the bottom part of the driveway that didn't have any rocks put down last year. That now has a couple inches of rocks on it. I packed it down by driving the car over all of it. It came out not bad. I did have to do some smoothing by hand though. I still sometimes struggle with using the tractor for building things up an leveling, it is difficult to back drag the bucket flat when you aren't on level ground to begin with.
We shall see after it rains, but I don't think I like the driveway gravel too much; it has too much dirt and not enough rock. I know it is a lot cheaper than the crushed stone, but I think when I do the true top coat I will get just plain crushed stone unless this doesn't wash out and turns out really nice. I still have almost half the pile left. I still have to the parking area where the pile is located, and I might use the rest to fill in the hole, and perhaps I will try to the path to the shed, or potentially the area for the carport, should I decide to put the carport at the top of the hill by the shed.
I had another thought on that, and I think I might try to build the carport where the pile of wood is now. I have one load of scrap metal left to take out of there and then I can get a dumpster to start getting rid of the pile of wood and the pile in the back yard.
Speaking of the carport, I finally finished the cost analysis. The spreadsheet can be found here: Carport Cost
The shed roof did end up being cheaper in the long run than the gable. I also added a "cheaper" and a "cheapest" variant for each design. The cheapest variant uses the thin metal siding (31 gauge) which I don't particularly care for, but is perfectly functional. The cheaper option is the same but uses T1-11 preprimed siding. I personally don't think the extra cost and maintenance (T1-11 requires painting) warrants the nicer appearance though. Both of the cheaper variants also completely remove the front. That can be added later if I so desire, but at the present moment I don't need a front on it. Here is a snapshot of the spreadsheet.
If I do put it by the slab where the pile of wood is now, I could conceivably do a shed roof and then eventually put another one up next year or the year after and park the truck under it (essentially giving me a two bay garage), which is very tempting idea. It also gets the carport somewhere where it is more easily accessed in the winter. Putting it at the top of the hill means that I have to climb the hill uncleared to get to the tractor to do the clearing.
Tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter than today, so I will likely just mow and do some tractor work. Keene is threatening triple digits tomorrow last I looked, and even Sullivan is looking well into the 90s (my thermometer said it got to 91 today).
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