Sam's Blog

I Wanna Rock!

We started off the weekend with a little yardwork. After having a cement pad and sidewalk put in on the side of the house, we were left with some unsightly dirt strips along the house and fence and an 8x8 area around the new air conditioner. Lisa decided that we would fill in the areas with decorative rock. Her friend told her of a nearby rock place where she got the decorative rock around her house. Lisa informed me that we'd go to a quarry to pick up our rock. Over the past couple of weeks, I kept asking her if she was sure that a quarry was where she wanted to go (I've been to a rock quarry before...). "Yes!" was her response.

So... Saturday morning, I head off to the dentist to get a crown replaced - but first I ask Lisa one more time if she called the quarry and that she's sure that's where she wanted to go. When I return, I hook up the utility trailer and off we go. We pull into the quarry and it's exactly what I envisioned although I'm not sure it's what Lisa thought it would be. Lisa goes inside and tells the person what we want. She returns and tells me that someone would be coming to load the rocks into the trailer (cool. I didn't feel like shoveling it in there....).

After a minute, here comes a guy driving this HUGE bulldozer - 9-foot wheels, the cab sits about 12-feet in the air, and the front scoop is twice the size of my puny trailer (Mitch was very impressed). The guy scoops up a bunch of rocks and waves us over. After a brief discussion, I drive over and position the trailer under the scoop and the guy starts dumping slowly. He asks me to tell him when to stop.

I base my estimation of how much rock to have him dump partly on my quick (in my head) estimation of what the job requires and partly on the fact that the tires on the trailer are now completely flat... I weigh in and find that we have just over 1600-lbs of rock. I pump up the tires with an electric compresser that I keep in the truck and off we go.

I figure that the trailer is designed to hold 500-1000 lbs so it's all over the place. But we make it home fine and I get to shovel and dump the rock (Lisa is nowhere to be found...). Mitch helps out with his shovel and wheelbarrow. Based upon my scientific calculations, we had exactly enough rock to fill the area. And, I must admit that the smooth rocks look much better than the dirt that was there before...

Oh, by the way... Lisa saw her friend later and described the experience. Her friend replied that she didn't go to a huge quarry to get her rock...

posted by Sam @ 5:35 AM