Building Solid Ground (Prepping for Garage)

by marjasisu, posted in Camp Many Moons

A garage is one of those practical things that adds value to a home.

I’ve never had one. Anywhere.

That’s about to change, at Camp Many Moons on the shores of Huron Bay.

Like many retirees, I divide my time between two states. In northern Virginia, I live in a townhouse and park in a tiny space that sometimes requires exiting my car sideways. Here in northern Michigan, I’ll soon have way more indoor room than my small car needs. And storage!

I’ve got the contract, and the estimate. (Yikes. Building costs!) But first, we had to prepare the ground. Here’s the process, in photos and captions, using uber-local machines and know-how. As with human relationships, building solid ground is essential if you expect them to stand against storms. Even then, trees can fall on roofs and misunderstandings can divide friends. We all do the best we can.

First, the tree-clearing…more than a dozen. He climbed a ladder to hook a cable on this 75-foot soft maple, and…
…down it came, thanks to the giant machine called a front loader (Iron Mule). The tree fell without a fight. The roots were shallow.
Its root ball was huge but no serious challenge to the Iron Mule or the man.
Since the garage will be on the property line, I notified the next-door neighbors, who drove up to help take down the trees at and near the property line, clear the trunks that came from their side, and gather branches. (Like me, they’re part-time residents, here intermittently.)
Next came a hired skid-steer to push the dirt around and even it out.
Then, seven loads of sand.
The friendliest local deer wandered through as if to ask “What’s going on?”
Gradually, the space which was once full of trees starts to look ready for a building, but it needs to be flattened first
The uber-handy man used his Iron Mule to help pack down the sand as we began to spray it with water from a sprinkler….
… and then packed it further with a smaller (borrowed) compactor…
…and more spraying with the sprinkler (which I moved every 30 minutes or so in order to cover the entire area) for almost two days. Maybe overdoing it? It’s a better risk than underdoing it.
And there’s the root-pulling — a dirty business and not fun in the heat. At least two trailer-loads like this, each root pulled by hand. During an unpleasant job, I remind myself of the goal. Next winter, I’ll be able to park my car under a roof. And put the kayaks, etc. inside. Will it be worth the cost? I’m told so, but we’ll see. In between chores and concern over cost, time for distractions…
…like this full-moonrise. I was on the phone with a sister when I took this picture from the porch at 11:30PM. By midnight, I was out there on my paddleboard. Perfect visibility and temps, so why not? Carpe diem!
Several days later, a post-sunset paddle on the Portage Canal near my hometown during an overnight campout.
The canal, which is part river, separates the Keweenaw Peninsula from mainland Michigan and connects on both ends to Lake Superior. (Camp Many Moons is located near the bottom of that very narrow bay in the middle-bottom.)
And this week, a paddle down Silver River to Huron Bay to home. This was a one-way paddle (I had to get dropped off) and I wasn’t sure how it would go on this clumsy little sit-on-top. It was only a few miles but would have felt much longer if paddling against the wind. Fortunately, the wind was with me. Here’s hoping it’s with the building project also. Stay tuned for more updates on that.
Here’s the reason for a garage…the house on the water, almost two years old now. To read about the DIY building process for this, use the search engine and search for “The Build Begins.”.

2 thoughts on “Building Solid Ground (Prepping for Garage)”

  1. It takes a dedicated and powerful team to take on this huge task of clearing and preparing the solid ground for your garage, Mary. In the upper peninsula it must be worth the work and expense based upon your photos of last winter’s snow. Thankful that you have good neighbors and a willing handyman!

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