When we had the driveway repaved last winter, we decided to retain the rubble from the old driveway (commonly referred to as spoils). We ended up with two very large piles, but making use of the bits was complicated by the fact that it was composed of large chunks, smaller rocks, and a lot of finer-grade particles, so making use of the stuff meant we needed a way to separate the three different grades.
Enter Agent Smith. He made up some drawings and went out and built a sifter. Apparently it is possible to rent these things, but as we had spare lumber and wire with which to make the screen, it was cheaper to just build it here.
Once it was in place, we began breaking down the pile seen in the first pic below. It was originally close in size to the pile in the second pic. Giggles the Skidsteer proved quite useful, and I learned to drive it by scooping up load after load of spoils and dumping them down across the back of the sifter. Then when the bottom area of the sifter was full, we’d scoop up the finer bits and move them into the floor of the stables, where we spread them out to provide a more level surface in there. Tony, the big tractor, then just rolled over the stuff and compacted it down. While not a perfect solution to stopping weed growth and leveling things in there, it’s definitely an improvement. Also, learning how to competently drive Giggles means I can get lots of stuff done all on my own now, which has sped up a few projects.
We also took some of the spoils down the hill into the south pasture, where erosion has caused slips along the track up through it, and later this summer we will use this pile (which is now much larger) to reinforce areas. Of course shifting the big rocks out of the remaining pile will require using Bambi The Excavator, but it will be a great training exercise as picking things up and putting them down well takes practice.
