A Vietnam Veteran named Mike recently received a memorable 80th birthday gift: his own tiny home.

Mike’s tiny home is the culmination of over a decade of work by a nonprofit called Operation Tiny Home, which celebrated this milestone with a ribbon-cutting ceremony last Friday.

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For the past two years, a black lab named Daisy has spent every day with her trainer learning to become a service dog. Daisy’s past life at a shelter is a distant memory. Now that she has learned tricks like turning on light switches and alerting, Daisy will soon leave her trainer’s care.

Daisy’s trainer, Mae, has learned valuable skills too. Over several years, Mae has become certified as a dog trainer through the Prison Pet Partnership. She already has a job lined up after she completes her sentence at the Washington Corrections Center for Women in Gig Harbor, Washington.

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Never bought gravel before? If you’re overwhelmed, you’re not alone. We covered some of the basics about buying gravel so that you can be more confident in selecting and ordering gravel for your project.

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With no other place to go, a mother pulls her van into a newly graveled lot. It doesn’t look like much, but it’s a godsend. It’s lit with a streetlight, and there’s running water, portable bathrooms, and outlets where she can charge her phone.

The entire lot is fenced, and the gate locks at night. Her kids can play in the field nearby. In the morning, there will be a hot meal ready at the church next door, and her whole family will be given bagged lunches filled with sandwiches, fruit, chips, drinks, and treats.

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Millions of acres of American wetlands have been destroyed since the late 1700s, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Early settlers viewed wetlands as disease-ridden swamps that impeded travel and agricultural development. Their solution was to drain the wetlands and turn them into farmable land.

In the mid 1960s, the port was growing in Tacoma. Shipping channels were being expanded, and more land was needed for industrial activities. Like many wetlands in the area, Wapato Creek was diverted into a channelized ditch. Its former path was filled with material removed from the waterways, solving both the need for expanded waterways and more land. The channelized ditch ran along 12th Street East in Fife, then followed Alexander Avenue west to a culvert that feeds into Blair Waterway.

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We’re excited to announce that gift cards are available for purchase! They feature a beautiful new design by artist Zoe Radford. Our gift cards make the perfect stocking stuffer

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Daniel Burnstein of Brooklyn, New York had a unique dilemma: his client wanted to be able to use the backyard with a wheelchair. Concrete work and pavers can be expensive, and Daniel liked the rustic charm of gravel.

His question: Can gravel surfaces be wheelchair accessible? The answer is yes—if they meet certain standards.

Washington Rock, with the help of landscape architect Clayton Beaudoin, researched the topic and came up with guidelines for making gravel surfaces wheelchair accessible.

Our goal is to make these guidelines as easy as possible to follow, so we created a simple guide below. Then we included additional resources, such as a Glossary of Terms and Research Notes.

Check out the companion piece to this article, “Designing for Diana: How We Made Gravel Wheelchair-Accessible in Brooklyn,” to read about how we used our guidelines to help Daniel create a gravel-accessible backyard. The project is summarized in the video below.

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Figuring out how much topsoil or gravel you need is a tricky business. Below I’ll take you through how our material calculator works and how much various trucks can carry. Be sure to check out our new video for step-by-step instructions on calculating how many cubic yards of material you need.

To visualize how many cubic yards or tons a pickup truck or dump truck can carry, check out our post, “What Does a Cubic Yard Look Like?”

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Figuring out how much landscaping or construction material you need is a tricky business. Below are some diagrams to help you visualize how much product a pickup truck can carry. We also help you visualize how much various kinds of dump trucks can carry.

You can also learn how to calculate how many cubic yards of material you need in our article-video combo, “How Many Cubic Yards Do I Need?”

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Washington Rock Quarries regularly blogs about causes and businesses that use our rock, sand, or soil products. In 2021, we published this story about Old Goat Farm, owned and operated by Gary Waller and Greg Graves. Greg passed away in late 2022, and Greg recently sold Old Goat Farm and began a new adventure in Eatonville, WA. We kept the Old Goat Farm story in the original format and hope you can continue to find inspiration in it.

Tucked away in the woods of Graham is a sprawling garden from the pages of a storybook. Swaths of flowers border a lawn that flows in different directions. Each garden bed is flush with hundreds of plants: fluffy peonies here, yellow clusters of ranunculus there, colonies of hosta winding like a forest stream. The colors and forms are endless.

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This article explores how The Hidden Farm uses ¼” Minus trail gravel to create cement-like paths and flooring for weddings and then easily transitions it into a horse arena footing in the winter.

The sections “The Secret Ingredient: Trail Gravel” and “Megan’s Gravel Recipe for Paddocks” contain specific information about how gravel products are used. Don’t forget to watch our video about The Hidden Farm located at the end of the article. We hope you enjoy the beautiful story of The Hidden Farm.

Just beyond the shorelines of Lake Tapps, The Hidden Farm sits on a hill surrounded by acres of pastureland. The valley below is dotted with grazing horses and cattle, and in the distance are the snow-frosted foothills of Mt. Rainier.

The viewpoint at the rim of the hill is bordered by a granite rockery. Behind the rockery stretches a smooth, green lawn, flanked on one side by horse stables and on the other side, a horse arena and a classic red barn.

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