Pre-Season Prep 2010

We decided to expand the garden this year to be about 50' by 75' (3750 sq. feet). In order
to do this we had to truck in an additional 60 yards of loam/manure mix. This is about
three full-size dump trucks full of soil. Each truck weighs in at about 30 tons fully loaded. I
was a little nervous that the dump truck wouldn't be able to drive past the shed to dump
the loam where I needed it. However, the company came by to check and confirmed that
they could do it. Here we see the first load sneaking in to the right of the shed.

Thanks to the 6 inches of rain we had recieved and the subsequent flooding the soil was saturated, the truck
quickly sank right up to its axles... and despite furious shoveling, the driver and I couldn't dislodge it.

After dumping the 20 yards of loam, the delivery guys first tried to dislodge the truck by pulling it out with a 4
wheel drive F-250.... Well, it wouldn't budge despite now being relieved of 25 tons or so of weight. So they called
in a backhoe to try to dig/push it out.

The backhoe didn't work either. The company decided to bring in a bulldozer to finally free the truck. Since they
were bringing all this equipment in anyway, I made a quick deal to have them dig all the existing tree roots and
spread all the loam for me. I was planning on renting a bobcat for these tasks... but since they were here anyway...
much easier to get this done for me.

After a few hours and two more dump trucks full of loam , I had all the tree roots ripped up and buried. The loam
was all spread and we are now ready to start this year's garden!