Today, Andrew, Bill, and I built a driveway. If you want, you can see some photos Bill and Andrew took on Bill's Xanga. This has been a bit of a prolonged process. I decided I should look into whether I needed a permit - and I did. I was able to get grandfathered in for a gravel driveway since my current driveway as well was gravel. I submitted the permit request with Middletown Township and paid my $47.00. Less than a week later I had my permit.

    I called several companies and finally found Eddington Supply Company. The woman I spoke to was very kind and helpful. Growing up I did a lot of this sort of stuff, but my dad was always the architect and I was one of the laborers - this was one of my first construction projects where I had to purchase the materials, etc. She recommended that I get two tons per 10 ft. of driveway, so I bought five tons. Then she recommended that I purchase some tarp-like material that goes under the gravel to keep the gravel from sinking into the dirt. I bought 350 feet of this as well. All told, the gravel was $22/ton, and I think I paid something like $20 for the entire tarp. The most expensive part was the delivery - $40. The one disappointing thing was how little five tons of gravel was. I think I am going to need another two or four tons.

    She also recommended that I dig down 2 inches. For this I decided to rent a machine. I called Newtown Rentals and for around $200 I was able to rent a bucketloader by Bobcat. It was pretty simple to operate and definetly saved up a half-dozen hours or so in labor. The real kicker was the $100 delivery fee - but hey, time is money and time is more important to me at this point in my life than the money (not that I have lots of money, just that I have less time).

   The Bobcat arrived around 8 a.m. The gravel arrived at around 9 or 10 a.m. I began digging. I dug a bit deeper than I would have preferred, but we were able to pull it back as needed. By 2 p.m. we had finished up for the day. We had dumped dirt in two sinkholes, dug out the front, put down the tarp and then place and spread the stones. Basically - we were done. We still need to plant some grass on some of the ground, add some more gravel, pat down some dirt - but overall its a project well-done.

   The big adventure of the day was when I was attempting to get a new angle at the pile of gravel near our little creek (or crick as I prefer). The wheels began slipping as I attempted to move back away from the gravel and I was sitting at a good downhill angle towards the creek. It was a little freaky. I could definetly see myself flipping over. We spent a good 30 minutes trying to get me out. Then the neighbors came over and gave us some help - with a big truck and a rope. It was somewhat funny because that morning I had remarked to Andrew and Bill that sometime soon I wanted to get to know our neighbours. Well, here was the opportunity. I joked, "Well, this was our way of inviting you over."