>>> You say it doesn't compact really hard? Do you think that is because >>> you don't apply it too deep.... about how many inches would you say?
I'd say we put 2-3" in the round pen initially - that would have been about 5 years ago. in 1996, we put down close to 6" for the base layer of the barn. It's what's still in my hallway, but we did put mats in the stalls. It's not terribly hard, even what was initially 6". Our soil is red clay, which can pack fairly hard, although not so much where grass grows, and if it's in the shade. (The sun tends to bake bare red clay into bricks.) I don't know if this helps or hurts - it seems to mix well. If you can get this sort of gravel, I don't think it would hurt to try putting down 2-3 inches initially - that's been about what we've put around the water tanks - since you can add more if you see you need it. Another tip - always have enough turn-around room and wide enough gates for a big truck to get into your pastures, be that a dump truck to bring in gravel or a big truck to deliver hay - and you may find that you build a barn or hay storage building where you don't initially expect to. Living on a piece of property sometimes changes your original ideas on the "flow" of where you want things. I moved my round pen about three times before I realized we could cut some low-handing limbs and have a wind-protected, shady area big enough - it's the perfect location, but I didn't see it at first. We now have a front-end loader on our tractor to move stuff (like gravel) around, but you may not have one initially. Karen Thomas [EMAIL PROTECTED]
