I was greeted this morning at 8:10 by a guy in an ancient dump truck (sorry, no pictures) who looked like he'd seen some work over the years.  A sinewy older guy with that sun-blinded look you sometimes see on pictures of civil war soldiers and cowboys. 

He walked up to me, took off his hat, bowed and said, "Greetings, fair lady."  What a great start to the day!

He left me with 2 yards of base gravel and one of sand, placed neatly in piles just as I wished BUT the truck couldn't maneuver into the back with this stuff, so I spent the day going back and forth to the front yard every time I needed another wheelbarrow load.  Oh, well.  Wheelbarrowing isn't so bad.

Before adding in the gravel I drove some marked chopsticks into the site at about 2-foot intervals, measuring each one to stick up about 4" and to be level with the others. 

Almsot as versatile as duct tape!

This worked pretty well as a guide to my gravel-dumping, though with 90% of the gravel moved I am still a bit low in much of the patio space but if the gravel is for drainage I think we'll be okay.  This is a desert after all. 

Next step: some more-serious compacting of the gravel and addition of dirt to the site to hold the gravel better, then it's time for sand.

It's starting to look patio-like!