if you have oak trees a soil test is good i hada put down tons of lime literally
Ayep. Planning on doing a soil test. And half a dozen other field tests listed in the Combat Engineer field manuals.
Filled two pot holes in my driveway with a couple hundred pounds of QUIKRETE High Performance Blacktop Repair (No. 1701). Broke the handle on the cheap Chinese tamper. I may have been using it a bit roughly, but any tool of mine that can't be used roughly doesn't deserve to live anyways. Used the metal section of the tamper to tamp into rough shape, laid down plywood, and drove over it a few times. Good enough. Once it has a chance to settle a bit, I'll lay down something around the edges of the patches. Technically should have chiseled out the areas into squares, but this was a quick fix that should be good enough until I repave the drive.
More clearing work. Now that the "easy" raking is done, now it's attacking the ground with a metal rake and yanking out the vines by hand to get as much of the roots out as possible. Terraforming, baby. Also found a general contractor to handle the couple of plumbing issues, and maybe do some of the odds and ends. Could do those myself, but eh, I don't mind. Guy has kids and he could use the cash.
I like it. 12 years of sacrifice, hard work, long hours, etc etc. All for an old house and plenty of dirt. Working the soil has a very odd sense of satisfaction. It feels cleaner than basically every other work I've done thus far. Can't wait to start laying down stone. It may take years, but this place will shine.