On Fri, 2 Jun 2017 17:58:15 -0400, "Kurt V. Ullman"
wrote:

A couple of years ago we put in a nice block fire pit. After a rather
wet spring we are thinking about putting something around it to lessen
the mud a little. Being basically lazy I want to just take some stone or
river rock or similar and spread it around with no other base
preparation. Is that like to work or just make things worse?

Maybe think about "pea rock". A local landscape nursery ought to have
it. Smaller than river stone and one solution.

Good to see you back, Kurt!