Took the first step towards building my shop

[Frank S]

It has been a busy week around the shop in getting the floor prepared.
After breaking it up with the backhoe like we did, we decided rather than me buying a 1950's era seaman pulvermixer, (To do so I would have had to hedge against some future truck and trailer repairs then most likely have to spend some time making sure it ran IE batteries possibly tires, hydraulic hoses and what ever else may or may not be wrong with the tractor like I really need another tractor that needs repaired right now anyway.)
That's not saying that I may not think about getting it in the future or going in with Bob to get it so we could use it as a very large rototiller as well as a means to clearing out and grinding up a forest of small saplings of china berry and dwarf scrub oak so several acres could be seeded in native grasses for possible future grazing. Or possibly even renting it out or selling it to recoup funds once it would no longer be needed. Heck it would make a great garden tiller as long as it were a big garden.




Eddy figured and I agreed that time and effort would be better spent by hiring a guy with a tractor tiller to come in and turn the floor into flour would be cheaper than if we rented one and did the job ourselves. Turns out it was probably the best decision. Knowing now what just renting a roller to pack things back down after he tilled it up for us and we spread the stabilizing mixture using my pickup with 600 gallons of water on board and the spray bar we made to distribute the mix . If we would have had to rent a tractor tiller the roller and hauled them it would have cost way more in money time and transportation. Plus we got to stand and watch the horribly long boring job of trying to turn the nearly concrete like clay sand fill I had put packed in the shop into the consistency of flour.
after the guy had been grinding away for over half the day
6 hours of tilling

after spraying

After many hours of driving a vibratory roller and many miles of driving a pickup back and forth
the floor is not perfectly flat or smooth but way better than some old slab floors I have had to work on