You Load 16 Tons, What Do You Get...

 

If you said, "Another day older and deeper in debt - from the song 16 Tons, by Tennessee Ernie Ford, 1957," you get 20 bonus points.  If you added, "The song was written by Merle Travis in 1946," you get an additional 50 bonus points.

I know what I get: a sore back.  Today was my "yard day" - Joan did her part last Friday, trimming all the plants in our front yard (and bagging the trimmings).  I was off making music.  Then, it was off in the van for a few days.  My task today was raking the gravel; well, to be more accurate: using a large push broom to move the gravel around.  The guy Joan hired to plant the cacti in the yard a couple months ago used a broom instead of a rake... so, now we use the push broom.

I am told that "moving all the gravel around helps eliminate any weeds that are trying to push their way through the gravel."  That's in quotes, because I have no verification of that fact.  There were a few tiny weeds along the way that I pulled.  So, if nothing else, our gravel has now all been swept, so it is cleaner.  Probably.

Our yard has pavers, turf, and gravel in the back yard.  I do believe there is more square footage of pavers than gravel or turf.  The front yard is all gravel, with a bunch of plants and cacti.  The front yard is on the west side of the house, so I got out early this morning (before 7:00 am) to get as much done before the sun was pounding.  The high today is supposed to be 106º (hottest day of the year so far), so the sun will be pounding.

I am pretty sure I moved more than 16 tons of gravel today.  There is actually a formula, but it works out to about a ton of gravel for each 100 square feet to a 2 inch depth.  Yeah, I'm sure I moved more than that today.

 The builder put gold gravel in everyone's front yards; I am told that is the most plentiful (and less expensive).  We went with the gray gravel in our back yards.

And pavers; lots of pavers...

 If you're keeping track, a pallet of pavers can weigh between 2,650 pounds and 3, 255 pounds.  We used 18 pallets of pavers... so, somewhere around 27 (+/-) tons of pavers.  Fortunately, I did not have to move each of those pavers today.  And, "27 tons" doesn't work in the song.  ;-)