the barn at the ranch - part 5

The building site preparation requires significant amount of fill to be brought in. The county requires the foundation to be tested by a certified geo-engineering firm. We have the engineer came and inspect the fill that we plan to use, which is shale and he had to sign off on its use.

this is the shale pit run that we would use as fill for the building site

once we took down the deer fence the deer rushed in

this two fawns came right up to the house door

we put the Link-Belt to work and it got a lot done in a hurry; we truck away the soft silt to another spot of the property while a hauler brought in countless loads of shale pit run

in order to compact the fill a lot of water is needed to be spray on the fill while compacting in layers

this space between these two structures would be turned into one of the two driveway access to the barn

the water truck with the water being replenished by the water from my well which ran at full speed

we pulled the water off the hydrant by the well head as it has the highest CFM

the red lines depicts the final grade of the building site; we ended up bringing in a little hill of fill

we are nowhere near done bringing in the fill quite yet

the rental compactor arrives

the contractor brought his Airstream trailer so he can stay overnight during the week rather than commute daily long distance; the cabin is also used by the crew to stay overnight

I install this GFCI duplex outlets so there is an electric hookup for the camper trailer

this is what the compacted shale fill looks like

the shale fill before compaction

each heap of the shale is one dumbstruck full

this compactor makes a lot of commotion from the vibration

this is mid August 2021; the fill is built up to accommodate the piers of the building foundation which is about two feet below the finished interior grade