Bob began on the west end of the patio area and also leveled off a few feet beyond the footer.

A view from down in the "pit".

That bucket is getting awfully close!

The real reason why Jeff was in the "pit". He and Paul needed to pump out much of the water before any stone could be dumped in.

Bob finished around the end of the east retaining wall.

The stone slinger arrived right on time and began throwing stone over the west wall.

The news anchor who came out to interview Jeff three days ago came back to shoot more clips. Our story should air sometime next week!

We attached 1" 2x8 sheets of foam board to the inside of the back daylight wall and the slinger started by filling that trench.

The slinger had the capability of throwing stone clear across to the opposite wall.

The slinger dumps stone into a basin which funnels onto a fast-moving conveyor belt, slinging the stone up over the wall.

Holding the drain tile pipe in place while the stone rains down to cover it.

After the trench is filled, the slinger spreads more stone in the low spots.

In the afternoon, our three truckloads of pea stone arrived. Most of this will be used to fill the patio pit. This third truck got stuck, so our friends brought their Case IH to help move it around on the mud.

Pulling the stone truck forward and alongside the two previous piles.

Dumping the last load of stone.

Pulling the empty truck out of the mud and up to the driveway.

We had the crew from ROCK HARD FOUNDATIONS reposition our septic outlet hole before they left. That meant drilling through our 8" wall of concrete and steel rebar with a diamond-tip hole saw.

They also drilled holes and placed anchor bolts along the top of the fireplace wall so that we can put a pressure-treated sill plate down before framing the chimney.

The hole saw was almost all the way through, when it hit a piece of rebar. Jeff told them they could just cut the bar with a saw.

Once cut, a few good taps from the hammer, and that piece of rebar came right out.