Spreading and Rolling Topsoil
2006.05.27
Rained all day today, other than a few short breaks. Now looks like there will still be rain tomorrow, but maybe enough dry periods to get some work done.
I borrowed Nate and his recently-purchased pickup truck, and went to Interstate Rentals to rent a lawn roller. They are normally closed on Sundays, but with the holiday weekend they are also closed on Monday. So they were running a deal where if you picked up an item on Saturday, you could keep it until Tuesday morning for 1.25 X the daily rate. So in this case, about $15. Til Tuesday… now I have Voices Carry stuck in my head.
I thought the roller would fit in my car, somehow, but I wasn’t sure, and at any rate it was a lot easier to just throw it in the back of the truck.
2006.05.28
While waiting for the rain to clear up, I decided to assemble the drop spreader I purchased a couple weeks ago. Part of the assembly consisted of four carriage bolts and some thumbscrews (plastic around a metal nut). Unfortunately, when I got to the second carriage bolt and thumbscrew, I could not get the nut to screw onto the bolt. I tried a different thumbscrew, but same results. I tried the remaining carriage bolts, and they worked fine. Hmm. Looking closely at the end of the obstinate carriage bolt, I could see that the threads were crossed. I wasn’t sure if that had occurred while I was trying to force the nut on, or if it had been that way to start with.
So, I got out my hacksaw, and cut off about an 1/8″ of the carriage bolt, noting from the first bolt / thumbscrew assembly that the extra length was unnecessary. But when I tried to put the nut on the shortened carriage bolt, it still would not budge. Right.
Well, time for a run to Lowes, I guess. I took one of the good carriage bolts and thumbscrews with me, and tried out the thumbscrew on a couple options until I had the right size.
Back in the garage, the assembly continued relatively without incident.
With a break in the clouds, I began shoveling, wheelbarrowing, dumping, and raking again.
I was able to finish laying topsoil along the back to the edge of the driveway.
Spreading Topsoil