Stonedust Pad for the Gate Area

Last fall I added a stonedust pad to the gate area of my "winter paddock." It was a very worthwhile investment that basically eliminated the mud issue there. Here are some photos of the project, which I did in late September before the ground started turning muddy:

First I used the bucket of the tractor to strip the grass and top layer of dirt. I'm definitely no expert so the bottom was a bit wavy. I used the dirt to build up a low-lying area elsewhere on the farm. 

To choose the dimensions of the pad, I looked at photos from last winter to see how far out the mud extended at its worst, and tried to cover that area. This is what I came up with.

This is what almost 44 tons of stonedust looks like! At this point I was thinking I had gone a little overboard, despite doing some calculations and thinking I might even need a second load after this one (I did not!). This quarry calls it "31-#10 dry dust" and it was perfect for my purposes--not too stony, not too dusty! This pile cost $913 delivered.

Here I've spread out and flattened about half of the stonedust. I ran over it with the tractor repeatedly to compact it, in addition to using a rake and shovel to fine-tune the grade. There's still a pretty sizeable pile left for the second half. I ended up using some of the extra stonedust in the dry lot shed, where I had previously gotten a crappy load of super-fine stonedust that was dusty and didn't compact well. I also used some of it to build up thin spots in the path between the barn and the field, and some to make the gravel driveway more barefoot-friendly. I still have a small pile left for whatever comes up. All in all I feel like this pile has served me very well! 

After putting in the stonedust pad, I kept the horses off this paddock for a few weeks to let the stonedust get rained on and hopefully compact. This photo shows that when I then turned them out on it in November, the stonedust was quite deep and not as compacted as I would have expected.

To firm up the deep footing, I ran the tractor over the pad repeatedly again. You can see from the much shallower hoofprints that it was pretty effective. I haven't had to repeat the process or do any other maintenance since.

Here is the stonedust in action! In December 2019 (left) there was a fair amount of mud, compared to February 2021 (right).