Having never been a part of the process of laying down gravel bed for under a basement, I found it really fascinating.  The gravel has to be dumped in, spread around with a bucket loader and then metal hand rakes.  All the while we had to keep checking the level of the gravel bed with the transit level. 

With the gravel we had, we were able to do all of house 3 and 2/3 of house 2.  Which is pretty good for three hours work by three people!  Now if only I could learn to drive the bucket loader! :-)