Biltmore Forest Walkway
The Biltmore Forest Walkway project entails replacing a 40 year old walkway leading to the front entrance of a house in Biltmore Forest. The existing walkway was set in sand on soft soils and had settled, shifted and recently been overrun (underun?) by moles. After removing the old stone- to be reused- I dug out the sand and soft soil. I replaced the substrate with road bond and compacted it with a jumping jack tamper.
Wednesday Morning

I’m using pea gravel as my setting bed. The compacted road bond and the pea gravel in combination create a very unfriendly environment for moles. It’s also less attractive for their favored foods, like worms. This is what the area looked like after the prep work was done, before I started setting stone.
Thursday Morning

The original material is no longer quarried, but a similar stone, a granitic gneiss called Hooper’s Creek, is a good match. The key to mixing different types of stone is to make the mix consistent throughout. It’s obvious when you introduce a new type of stone halfway through a project. But if you have all the varieties in play from the first stone, it usually works out fine.
Friday Morning

My Friday goal was to finish the matrix, what I call the edges and the big stones that connect the sides, leaving only the fill-ins and details for Monday.
Friday Quitting Time

Except for that one area at the very end, the matrix is done. Monday is all about filling the gaps.
