Our excavator Butch was not messing around! Today was the day our driveway was formed- better known as step one. Brad and I drove by after work today to see what, if anything, had happened. The entire lay of the land had been been changed in about 5 hours flat. I'm pretty sure we both could have swallowed a few flies from our mouths hanging wide open.
A little history on the driveway...Johnson County required that we move our driveway from the west side of our property to the dead center. This actually worked out perfectly for us as our current ag driveway was very steep and at the bottom of a valley. This made it difficult to get out quickly and avoid oncoming traffic!
We had to have a 72' (yes you read correctly) culvert installed to route the water correctly and then form a new driveway on top. Butch had to take the hill where the driveway was to be located and smooth/push all the dirt forward to fill in the 4 1/2' ditch.
The pictures honestly do not do the actual drive justice. I'm pretty sure the only way to grasp the magnitude of what happened today is to either come and visit, or rent a chopper and look at it from the sky! Either way - this was totally nuts!
Only one walnut tree was harmed in the making of our driveway, so we're hoping to sell it to a mill, or make a rustic mantel out of it. Or if all else fails, it'll make some really nice firewood for next winter. It was actually a bit disheartening as we were looking forward to the driveway being between two trees, but we can always plant another to take its place.
Sorry for the dark pictures. With it getting so dark out so early, we had limited time to take snapshots.
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| Looking at our old driveway and fence line - which is no more. |
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| The old "Ag" driveway. Seems so small now in comparison. |
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| We discovered a couple more walnut trees we didn't know we had! |
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| The yellow tree in the background is probably 200' away from Brad. That just gives you an idea of how large the pile of dirt is he's standing on. |
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| This view is standing at the bottom of the driveway looking up toward where the garage will be. Clearly we will need 4WD immediately if not sooner! :) |
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| The new driveway meets the street. |
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| Standing at the middle of the driveway looking down toward the street. |
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| About 150' back from the road. Looks like Butch had a hay-day in his dozer today! |
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| The other side of the drive - looking east. This is where our walnut tree bit the dust. Anyone know of a super fast growing tree??? |
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