Finally! Jackie's guys showed up this morning bright and early to get started on the final grade... again. The first attempt didn't go so well when we had a landscape company try. This time we got MTC (who did the original excavation and driveway) try their hand at it. The results are pretty darn impressive!

 

Things looked very nice - as you can tell from the pictures, until a big storm rolled in. Rain poured down for about an hour and turned all that red clay into slick red mud. After the rain let up, the sun came out and it didn't take long for the deck to dry out. The mud is going to take a bit longer though. Thank Jeep for QuadraTrac! I had pulled down into the driveway which by this time had been cleared of all traction-providing gravel. Didn't take a whole lot to get back up the hill to the access road.

 

Mark had gone to get the backhoe to pull out some of the more challenging stumps, and brought Jackie back with him. Jackie made quick work of the last 4 huge pines we needed to take down to expose a gorgeous view of the mountain to the south of the house. We really have a sweeping view of the countryside now!

 

Almost all of the huge stack of logs (that have been sitting on the property line for nearly a year) have been hauled away. Quittin' time rolled around and we have only a few logs left after filling up the dump truck twice. One more load tomorrow for the remaining logs and the enormous stumps  that Mark pulled out this afternoon.

 

The guys are coming back in the morning to finish grading the area to the south of the house, take all the ruts out of the ground, hand rake the landscaping, hydroseed everything in sight, and bring the gravel out to redo the driveway. They expect to be finished by the end of the day. I have been looking forward to this for the longest time... I am not disappointed as MTC has done a fantastic job so far!