Repair stone steps

On Saturday May 30 I was able to cross a project off my list: Repair stone steps to bunkhouse. The bunkhouse path was blazed by Emily in 2002 while we were building the bunkhouse. The last couple of yards of the path go over a large rock, dipping a bit before you reach the wooden steps to the bunkhouse. Some stone steps were built on the path to make the step down more manageable. Over the years the steps have slowly deteriorated until not much remained. On Saturday morning I pulled apart the steps and relaid the stone. I was going to fill in the steps with dirt, but I decided that gravel would wear better and be more visible on dark nights.

My trip to Polson to get pickup gravel was delayed by the sudden storm. By the time I got to Polson the sand and gravel companies were closed so I went to Delaney's. Delaney's had a small pile of some nice, rounded gravel mix, (pebbles ranging in size from an inch down to pea gravel) that looked like it would make a good path. The gravel was not on their price list, probably left over from one of their contract landscape jobs, but after a bit of conversation I was able to buy a little more than a yard--more than I needed for the steps, but I also needed some to fill in some other paths.

Getting the gravel close to the bunkhouse was a perfect job for the Kubota. I backed it up to the trailer and shoveled in a small load of gravel. I started with a small load to see how the Kubota would handle a load on the steep paths.

It took two trips to fill up the steps and finish the job.

Unfortunately, on my second trip I got too close to the fencepost on the left. The spade on the fencepost was exposed and put a nasty hole in the rear passenger-side tire. I punched in some repair plugs and filled the tire with Fix-a-Flat, but it is still leaking slowly.