First project with my B2320 WITH PICS

Avery11 · May 24, 2016

Hey gang,

I usually rip through projects from start to finish and never stop to snap before and afters. Since this is my first project using my B2320, I decided to slow down a bit and take everyone along for the ride.

SITUATION: Wife is tired of the old fire pit.

MISSION: Build a new fire pit in the woods on level ground.

EXECUTION: Use the tractor to level terrain and haul materials thereby justifying said tractor.

SERVICE SUPPORT: Wife and 3 strong young men.

COMMAND and SIGNAL: Take 1 guess...

Here we go. First I had to get one of these...

Avery11 · May 24, 2016

After learning a bit about the machine, I headed to the woods to pick out a spot. Far enough in to feel like I'm away but close enough to run to the house for "supplies". Here is what I started with (I had already begun to rake)...

Avery11 · May 24, 2016

About 2 or 3 inches of forest duff had to be scraped off. I don't have a tooth bar for digging but I do have a Ratchet Rake which came in handy. Cleared about 1000 sq ft as there are plans for more out here in the future. The trash piled up quickly and made me wish I had a grapple. The rake revealed quite a few chunks of ledge, all of which were manageable.

Avery11 · May 24, 2016

Here is the plot after about 3 hours of seat time. I'm sure this was way longer than it should have been but I was having fun and learning so efficiency was not a priority.

Without a tooth bar, grading was tough so I got it within reason (10 inches over 20 feet) and graded with my wallet (more gravel).

Avery11 · May 24, 2016

6 generously measured yards of crushed gravel and 5 yards of 3/4" stone. Nothing fancy but a big haul for a small tractor - I'd say about 15 tons.

Avery11 · May 24, 2016

The family really stepped up. This was a back breaker at times. For layout, I pounded a 3' steel steak in the rough center of where the ring would go.

Next, I made a square frame from 4 2x4x8 studs. I leveled the square and held it fast using available stones and 12 inch galv spikes pounded through holes drilled through each end.

I drilled another hole for the center steak through a straight 2x4x10 and used it as a compass. I laid out a 20' diameter using marking paint.

Then came the crushed stone for fill, bucket by bucket. As I poured, the fam raked and we screeded by spinning the 10 footer around resting on the square frame to make a flat plane.

When we had a flat 20' circle, we compacted and laid out 2 more circles with paint: 1 for the perimeter and one for the pit to keep it perfectly centered.

The boys built the pit and the wife and I laid edging and crete pavers around the perimeter.

Avery11 · May 24, 2016

Finally, I put down a weed barrier and filled with finish stone. I still need to lay loam around the edges and grade it out so there is no step and no erosion of the edge. We will likely place low greenery around the ring to hold the soil and give it a nice transition. Picked up some very nice steel torches that will go into pvc sleeves in the ground. It came out pretty nicely.

Gravel and stone from local landscape supplier, fire ring blocking repurposed from an old retaining wall, and everything else from the big blue box. For reference, I have just shy of $800 in it including chairs and torches.

Next time I will order the crushed gravel from an excavating supplier in town for about half of what I paid the landscape supplier. I wanted to see how this came out first as the excavating co. has a 15 yd minimum.