I agree, Adam. The pad is going to be rock hard by September for sure! Honestly, it's already impressively hard after compaction of multiple layers.

Speaking of the pad...it's essentially complete. 115 ton of recycled concrete modified stone plus about 5 ton I scarfed from next door. I have about 10 ton of that 115 left and available for additional needs and repairing things when the folks drilling post holes mess it up. LOL Why so much stone? Excavation of about 16" of organics. That meant a total of about 28" of thickness at the back and about 16" at the front. I have some minor work to do to improve the flat/level from about a current up to 1.5" shallow in spots but will do that manually in the coming days after I move the pile of remaining stone to a more convenient place. I may also cut out and put in stone for a small apron at the big door and for a walkway in front of the man-door in my copious free time.

Last load! (of...five)

IMG_1420.jpg IMG_1421.jpg

Don't be fooled by the surface looking "rough" in the photos...it's not, but the newly applied stone is darker until it dries out.

IMG_1423.jpg IMG_1424.jpg IMG_1425.jpg

I have to say that I'm extremely pleased by the performance of the Big Orange Power Tool (BX-22). Yea, it's a sub-compact TLB and it was purchased new in 2001. But darn, it works hard and was lifting full buckets of that heavy modified stone mix after I did that little rejuvenation of the hydraulic pressure relief valve a few days ago by adding some shims. (multiple videos on the 'Tube show how to accomplish this with aging and/or small tractors) Darn...that little orange thing just moved, leveled and helped to compact 100 tons of stone! (Additional compaction was done by a rented plate compactor)

Other than the little detail things I'll do that's mentioned above, I may also grab back some of my extracted topsoil to feather and further stabilize the raised end of the pad. It's not like I don't have time to do it. LOL