Good stuff I use Bosch Rotary Laser amzn.to/4dQZy14 3M Bluetooth Headphones amzn.to/44L038M Doyle Log Rule amzn.to/3wJoO8X Chemical Guys Foam Cannon and Soap amzn.to/4bGlv0V Sure Can 2.5 Gallon Gas amzn.to/3WGWiiR

I watched all of Tyler’s throws this past weekend. I was rooting for him and talking to the tv cheering him on. 10th in the nation is quite an accomplishment. I’m proud of his dedication.

12k or so to build your road , 40k if you hired it out … but then factor in how much revenue 175 trees might bring in , in terms of firewood or lumber. I think your in better shape than you think .

Good morning, OWTM. From north-central Idaho. When I saw this title, I was glad to see this project reach a final stage. Then I thought how this 😮 more than just a road. During this build, you have taken us on a journey that includes daily home life, successful business expansion and operation. And, as icing on the cake, moved forward significantly on the development of your West Virginia property. I salute you and your family for perseverance and endurance, and for what my father would have called internal fortitude - gumption. At 70 years old, I commend you to ours and younger generations as a fine example of living as a free man.

Another great video. About two years ago we needed to replace the drain field for our septic system and here in north Florida we got 4 quotes ranging from 8000.00 to 12000.00 . Being a contractor for 26 years I decided to do it myself and with machine rental and materials I spent right at 3000.00 . There is not a better feeling than doing it yourself

Love the mix of action/music, commentary, and conversation. And the choice of music is great. Thanks for all the hard work

I feel your Driveway cost my Driveway is 1320 feet and we love it. We lined our Driveway with blooming pear tree’s and everyone that see’s our Driveway tell’s us it is Amazing and they want to know what tree’s are lining our Driveway. When I mow I have had people stop and ask what are the tree’s. Amazing how beautiful tree’s can bring people together. 🤘🏼🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

Interesting breakdown and way of looking at it. Long story short, I crave the satisfaction of a job well done. The savings of doing it yourself is huge, as well as the quality of the work. I do it for the enjoyment of it and looking back years down the road saying "I built that". In today's world of mundane and unsatisfied work environments, people don't get many opportunities to see the fruits of their labor.

Good stuff Mike! 2024 comparison Southwest Mass on the CT border. I contracted out a 375 foot road with no gravel/stone just a gravel/sand base mixture, compacted (gravel and stone to come). Tree removal. Small mouse clearing and a turn around area. Trees removed, branches chipped $18000!

The progress on the Morgan Highway is fantastic and the number of episodes made on it is a YT success. Melissa's shopping math was how my mother in law thoughts were. You are doing a wonderful job contenting this property improvement. 👍👍👍

Your comment about keeping the road on grade reminds me of a job interview for a dozer longtime ago. The applicant asked the boss that was overseeing tryouts What is the pay? The boss told him $18-20+ an hour depending on skill level. He goes to the bulldozer starts it proceeds to grade a road the boss had described he wanted him to build. He left from where the machine was sitting and about one third speed and blade was up and down to entire time till the end of the road. Returning back he spins the machine around applying about three quarters throttle engages the road and leveling all the rowing material making a perfect surface for the road. Gets off the machine going to the boss telling him “That was $18 going and $20 coming back. Your choice”.

Hey Mike. We are about 55 miles NW of you and just finished building a house about 850' back from the main road. So, our access road was excavated, and we had a 12" base of sandstone "chunks" (average 8-10") covered by a 4" finish coating of 3/4" - 1" limestone with fines. The road is 8' wide except for one curve that is 12' wide - no geotech. Oh, and 2 - 16" culvert pipes. Guess we got a good deal for approximately $26,000. Love your channel!

Bluefords feelings are hurt!!!😮

Mike, I love this channel because you do my favorite things. Splitting wood, doing anything with wood, digging dirt, and expanding your property. Me and my dad did that at our property years ago with our small kubota b7500 tractor and backhoe, then bought a kubota rtv 1100 and used it as our mini dump truck to move fill around and then borrowed my uncles skidd steer and kubota kx121-3 mini excavator to do the work as well. We live in Cumberland Rhode Island and we don't have much land where we are, but it feels like we cleared lots of dirt and rocks. Shout out to you. I was here when you had your Polaris ranger and kubota l3901.

The road build project has been fun to watch and also educational. I also think that you could deduct some of your cost due to the lumber and firewood that you got from the trees that you removed. Hope everybody is having a good week. Stay safe everybody

It’s always a great feeling at the end of the day to be able to see what all your hard work has accomplished. Definitely a testament to a good old work ethic. Great job!

When I built my house I installed a gravel driveway but every time we had a hard rain I had to boxblade the gravel back on the driveway. About 25 years ago we had a chance to asphalt it. The driveway was 10 ft wide 1 1/2 in thick a d 600 ft long and cost $4000. I think you came out good on your cost. Have fun and stay safe!

All that hard work on the road will pay off when you build the barndominium !

That road is looking really good! I think it makes your property look better. You do great work Mike Morgan! Love the channel!

Thanks for the numbers on making the road! Hi to Hunter!! 32 years old!

Get some 1/8” acrylic sheet scraps and make a seatbelt-buckle template to plug in while you’re on-property to shut up the dinger!

I've been watching your road project through your videos. Thanks for the tips and technique discussions along the way. They are very helpful for a novice equipment operator. I've been working on a similar project, building an access road/trail through my woods and across a pond bank that separates the two settling ponds on my property. Your videos have given me ideas on how I approached various portions of my project. I can't say my grades are quite as nice as yours; however, I can now get my machines around the ponds to do maintenance and deal with downed trees and branches. Anyway, thanks for the cost analysis discussion. Your road project turned out great. I'll be interested to see the final installment after the last load of limestone is down.

Glad you’re near the finish line w/ your new road. It should be a lot more convenient getting to the meadow. I appreciate your cost estimate. We have a similar job ahead of us establishing our new homesite. No way I’d want to pay someone to do this. Like you, I want to do this job right, and put the saving to building our barndominium. Thanks for putting this together. Very helpful.

Using Melissa's "shopping math" absolutely loved it!

Impressive!!! Side boards still intact.

I still believe that spot would make a great homesight!!! Nice driveway

Must have been fun driving the Big Ford and trailer on your new road to Morgan Park!

Mike what I have found out when grading with a small piece of equipment is to keep at least a 1/2 bucket of materials in the bucket to stabilize the bucket, helps to take the slack out of the pins, bushings and linkage , any slop so to speak . You do a great job teaching bye the way that should be very beneficial to these youngsters, especially the one out here ramen the town pile 😊

GOOOOOOD MAAAAAAAAWNIN EVERYONE & wishing all y’all a HAPPY & SAFE INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!….Looking good! Nice video work Melissa. Always enjoy seeing Hunter. Have a day HELLOOOOOOO HUNTER 😊

Congratulations on a job well done, so gratifying that you completed it yourself.

Mike you explained grading your stone perfectly!, i use my bobcat only starting out level and always having stone in the bucket going forward. If you work it to much it segregates. With equipment cost as they are a lot of people couldn't afford to have work like this done. Definitely a must to invest in your own equipment. Great job on your road!, being particular is a good thing im the same way!.

You're great at using the machines to build the road. You make it look easy.

I enjoyed that video, think I watch it again. Looks Good Mike!

Great job on the road!!!

Was even better the second go around, thanks for Sharing.

WOW! AWESOME!

Hi Hunter, always great to see you.

Good Tuesday morning Morgan family! Hope you’re having a productive week. Happy early 4th! Think about how much you can earn back from firewood and lumber sales as well. I bet you can almost break even on that.

Thank you for recommending your son Levi KZfaq channel he is very knowledgeable about trees and shrubs and all that kind of stuff really good videos.

I sure do like the way you do things Mike.

Looks like a nice road you have going...good job! I've run those track machines since they hit the market way back when. I would recommend stone pile placement and trailer loading spotting to eliminate all the 180 degree spinning. It really does wear parts/tracks prematurely when rocks get in-between guides... rollers. It's always best to eliminate that excessive spinning by spotting your trailer at a 45 degree angle backed up close to the pile. That eliminates all the track wear spinning and all ya have to do is stab the pile..back out with slight angle turn and then approach the trailer. It's faster .....less wear....and less clean up. The tracks and rollers are not cheap..and since these are your machines I'm sure you want the tracks to last all the way to normal replacement. Good Job on the road!

Mike I must have missed the need for a stone road into the woods??

Very fair estimate on the coasts and materials machine hours and such also your music is getting better has a beat to it now well done i and as i have seed this is me i would rather not have it but i think you are an honest man doing his own thing on his land and loving it well done to you my friend Cheers road is looking real good

great job ty

Good morning y'all !!! Have a fantastic day and hello from British Columbia !!!

This was a very informative video Mike. I was awaiting to see what you came up with on the costs, knowing your a numbers, math guy, i was really surprised at how much you saved, i mean you can be well on your way to paying for equipment with those kind of savings, and i think you really enjoy doing that type of work as well, so its a win win win, Enough saved Melissa may just get her pool :) ❤💯🙏

Great video sir. Architect/builder here, & we're blessed to have a lot (but never enough) of land in WV that I'm redeveloping (has been "wilding" for about 40 years) and we're fighting this fight. Good thing is my retired pops has a small excavation company and according dump trucks so we don't have to manually move the stone like you're doing here unless we want to or need to touch up a certain area. I've realized that I definitely need a small dump trailer like you have for other misc chores around the tract. Those trailers are handy "like a pocket on a shirt!" I know you know this, but for the price of delivered stone, you could have them "tailgate" it for you then touch it up with the other equipment you have like the land plane. Will save you a LOT of time. FWIW, for newly cut roads, we almost always put down some type of typar membrane then #1 (or other course aggregate/rip rap) then layer our smaller crushed stone on top of that. Depending on how much water the uphill ditch will have to handle, we may or may not shape large aggregate/rip rap in the ditch with the excavator & skid steer which helps with erosion. Then we liberally sow fescue seed on any fresh cut that remains which usually starts to sprout in as little as a few weeks and further keeps the erosion in check. Land planes are a godsend for working with that small stone. Also, out in the country like this, put in more culverts than you think you'll need, when one gets blocked you have some redundancy and can avoid road washouts when the boomer storms come. If you really want to get deeper into the rabbit hole, USGS has some tools that can help you calculate potential rainfall and affected runoff areas/totals for your ditch/culvert sizing (a good place to start ~ water.usgs.gov/edu/activity-howmuchrain.html) 🍻

Very impressive!

Mike and Adam…….the Kings of rationalization!

Mike - would you ever be open to chatting on the side regarding the logistics of what you do? I'm reconsidering my "business" and also my YT channel and how they tie together, and you obviously have this figured out. Would love to learn from an expert in this community. I appreciate your time and effort in sharing what you love to do.

Good stuff & and yes, great price too ❤❤❤

Your numbers are spot on. My neighbor here in N Idaho relocated our road (private) to get it further away from his house. It was about 330 feet or so, and though we got a few bucks from the local sawmill for some of the big firs that had to come down; it cost him around 30K for the work.

I wanted to say this BEFORE I watched the video: When I was still in business, I built residential driveways, among other things that go along with specialized dirt-moving. Storm water management was a big one, but I digress... For a standard, residential, gravel driveway; I was charging $7,000/LF, which is 1,300sq.ft., or 100' x 13'. That's properly built, ready for asphalt or concrete, if you wanted to do that. Therefore, I would have charged about $60,000 for an 875' driveway. ($7,000 x 8.75) The price would vary somewhat, depending on a variety of factors, but as a general "over the phone" quote, that's what it would have been.

Hello! 😊 Having the right equipment is one thing but a bigger thing is knowing what to do with it and when. Mike is relying on his years of experience in the highway and heavy construction industry to accomplish this project. The average Joe would not have that asset. People call me all the time and say, "I rented this equipment and attempted to do the job myself but it just didn't turn out. Would you come and complete the job? " .

Thanks for the tips on grading, Mike!

The new road is looking great!

MIke, I was a fellow Pa man. worked in York over 30 years as Mech Eng. Retired in SW Virginia. Been watching your videos for several years and enjoy them. Noticed your conversation with wife I saw a Yankee Candle "Jar " hanging from mirror with Midsummer night scent. Wow, had that in my vehicles for over 25 years. Best scent for men eh. Good to know we have something in common, HaHa Have a day friend. JES

I wish that I could handle a trailer like that. Good stuff.

Good morning Mike and Melissa have a good day road project looks awesome nice job enjoy your day have fun be safe 🚜🙂

I wish it was that cheap for a road that size here in Texas. I am in the process of doing the same length of road, utilizing your methods. I spent $950 for one 24ton load of 1" crushed concrete. Using the geotextile method to make it sold, and 6" of stone, I'm looking at $9,000 just for stone. I spent $800 on 3 12x20 plastic culverts, I have rented a mini excavator for two days is costing me $450. The skid steer will cost me $1800 for a week rental. Don't know the fuel cost yet. But the last two bids I got on it were $41,000 and $50,000. So you were spot on the contracted price. I need the equipment, but for now I will just rent. Thanks for all the demo's on how to get it done. Wish me luck. I will report back on what it looks like and my final cost.

Thanks for the breakdown on costs and estimating what it would cost to hire it out is good too.

If you read what I said the other day you could’ve had the truck that delivered the stuff to exactly what you’re doing. You have the box greater I don’t know why you did it this way anyway you’re the boss

Get some 1/8” acrylic sheet scraps and make a seatbelt-buckle template to plug in the truck while you’re on-property to shut up the dinger! Same for canam sxs!

Good vid.

Nice Vid!

Without even watching the video of your price breakdown, I figured 50 grand if you had a contractor hired to do it. A dollar just doesn’t get you much anymore. Sure feels good to do projects yourself and saving money is just another feel-good benefit of that.

Morning Mike, sunny and warming up in Ontario.... enjoy YOUR day.... Pete 🇨🇦

Great price analysis.

Doug have bbn you trained Levi to run your sawmill. I know he has operated all the firewood equipment. I've only seen you run the sawmill. If he hasn't run the mill yet, you should get him on it as your backup. Just the ramblings of an old man feeling his mortality. I love your videos and your opinions on things.

Good Job.

Mike your road through the woods looks really good. Nice to see a someone like you take pride in the work you do. I’m sure you would probably do the same, if you were doing this on a job for someone else. I try to find Tyler’s throws this past weekend. All I could get was the track and field girls running and gymnastics.

The road and everything look great Mike. Good job!👍❤️

Thanks again for all your videos

Looks like a good job for Blueford! Nice work on the road!

Wow that is a great looking road pride in your work manship is a simple thing even if the job is for someone else Cheers Paul

I have approx 700ft of driveway I did back in 2020. Its 12" thick in some spots and it was about 12K. Thats with a friend hauling the gravel in with his dump and using his skid and my tractor. I also topped it with clean 3/4 in Limestone. So id say in today prices thats a great deal. Who's Denali Mike?

That's Shaping Up To Be An Awesome Job!! Keep Smiling On!! 😅👍👊❤️

Good morning Mike, Hope you get some rain to help settle that rock. Almost perfect timing in between, as you near the end it rains..

Good job guys

i see the clear lumber stacked and stickered and i kook back forty five years ago and i paid 10 dollars a ft. for a peace of 1x12 x8ft. 80 dollars !!!! nice stack of lumber you have there Mike

Hi Hunter!!! Always nice to see your smiling face.

It’s coming out great Mike. Was looking for Tyler on tv last week.

Morning outdoors fam👋👋

I got prices to install geothermal system. Then I bought a new kubota with backhoe, and did it myself and saved money over the contractor cost, and ended up with a new tractor. However, for my remote VA property, I got quote of $12K for a 300 ft driveway, flat area, 3 trees to come down and 1 culvert. Been debating renting equipment and doing it myself. Normally I do things my self.

Looking real nice and the Cost not bad for what you have done good deal

If you will back your skid passed the pile instead of turning around twice for every scoop, each cycle will be a total turn of about 30 degrees instead of 360 degrees...you will get an extra 200 to 300 hours on a set of tracks and your machine will last considerably longer before drive components need replaced.

Good morning, Mike. Great content and information as always.

Since you are loosing the tracter and box plane have you looked at the grader atachment made by Spartan, makes the skid a small road grader, Just a thought for all the road you work on AND we enjoy your show

Awesome goodness always 💪 keep stepping and fetching 💪

In 1990 I had a 5 yard dump truck . During that time I was buying a load of gravel for 50.00 I would sell it for 100.00 . Also , there was a guy , Jack that had a large site selling me sand for 5.00 a load , I was selling it for 45.00. I couldn't buy sand anywhere else for 5.00 but from Jack.

Nice job Mike. A Huber road maitainer would be nice to dress up the stone once a year.

It depends, but I charge 1000 to install culvert + around 400 for a 15 inch x 20 foot pipe delivered. Need to allocate 1 day for it, though the actual work takes 4 hrs or so…the other half the day is getting the pipe/loading/unloading/towing.

I live in Chipley florida, about 35 mile north of Panama City. The cost for #57 or #57 stone is $90 a ton delivered $1800 a truck load 20-22 ton

The Morgan expressway is looking good!

Hey Hunter! Road turned out nice

hi there nice input , good show , best to all john

Nice looking road.

You are right Mike. Doing it yourself saves money and you learn as you go. Most contractors are in and out in no time, if they are not doing a bunch of jobs all at the same time. I have had contactors do work for me and it was a nightmare. Had to fire one guy because he was putting his profits up his nose.

Greg from northern Michigan. Very nice road. Equipment / fuel / experienced operator / insurance costs here run about $150 per hour. I would estimate this job around 200 hours to complete with tree removal and burn pile stacking, So 200 hrs at $150 per hour = $30k. Plus culvert and stone msterial would add another $15k. So your $45 to $50k estimate is right in line. And the quality of the outside contractor job would not be even close to your excellent work.

Wow Tyler did an amazing job placing 10th in the nation. Great work as I was very impressed. Definitely something to be proud of :) Driveway is looking great. Here in the Toronto area that would cost way way more than $40,000