Last Friday we began preparing the soil on which we are going to build our green roofed farmhouse. The vegetation was removed first then the dozer cultivated the soil to 12" depth. The water truck then passed over and Roberto disked the soil. Then came the compacter. This is called the sub grade and it has to be firm so that we can build the soil pad on top of it. The compacter passed over many times until we were happy it was hard enough. At noon a technician from Raney Geotechnical in West Sacramento tested our work with his neutron probe. After a little extra work we were allowed to start adding soil. We needed to get the pad to 18" above grade to be out of the way of a 100 year flood. The paddle then picked up soil from where our pond will be and started spreading it on the house pad. The compactor followed over at least three times 6" of soil was spread. It took 1,000 yards of soil to make the size and depth of pad we needed.
On Monday the pad was tested again and passed. We now await our permit to start building the house.
As we progress I will post more about the house and how we choose this house and got the money to build it. There will be an album of pictures and descriptions on our facebook page (Eatwell Farm).
It is an adventure.
