The last week of September, after a lot of delay (Covid? - don't know the reasons), the crew from Duame Sand & Gravel pulled up with all the heavy equipment needed to finish off the excavation. It was the same crew that did the original Big Dig almost a year ago, so I knew them all. over the course of four days they installed the drainage system for water run off, backfilled around the house, contoured the hills, trucked off all the extra sand piles and seeded and put out erosion mats on the steep hills.

Even though we had TONS of silt fencing up, we had quite a bit of erosion where we had dug. The banks stayed put pretty well, though. Finished behind garageSetting the drain pipes for the NW side of the garage gutters and the garage floor drainDrain pipe for gutter on screen porch. If we had of planned a little better, the downspout would have been on the west corner. So we hade to run drain pipe all the way from the south corner.junction of 3 drains: screen porch gutter, NW side of house gutter and the NW garage gutter. Outlet is into the undisturbed wooded area Downspout from house NW side. This side is now done. Time to turn attention to the other side.Nick (facing camara) explaining what he wants done to Jeff and Taylor of Duame Sand & GravelAnd this is what was decided - BIG rocks!We were able to use rocks found on the propertyA catch basin was installed - and Taylor made sure it was level. the entire NE roofs of the house and garage as well as the driveway drain through here.Backfilling around the catch basin.The catch basin drains out way down the hill into the area where the old burn pile was. We put a load of breaker rock there to prevent erosion.Another shot of where the drain comes out. This will become a "rain garden". I am planning to plant some native wet soil loving plants.Beginning of driveway grading. You can see the final grading around the catch basin and side of the house on the left. The drive is graded to have run off go down to that catch basin.Spreading the last layer of road gravel for the driveway.Getting rid of the extra pile of sand. Jeff (excavator operator) had saved a bunch of sand from the excavation to be sure we had enough. We had about 20 truckload more than enough.A thin layer of topsoil was applied over most of the graded areas.Finish grading - ready to rake & seed. This area my nephew Kyle McConnell and I seeded in late October.Finished rock area outside the side door near the saunaFinished driveway. I'll blacktop next year.Good shot of the "back" of the house. Road side anyway. The corbels were put up later. As of Christmas, the post for the porch was still not installed.The great crew from Duame Sand & Gravel: Taylor, Mike, Jeff & "Killer"