Not a Barn Raising but a Wall Raising

Bill and I were going to start on the little retaining wall down at the street. It is 95 square feet of block. As much as we would have liked to put in a natural rock wall we are getting to old to move those blocks so we went with concrete blocks.

This is where it is going. Lowe's delivered the blocks out to us. I saw the order desk write on the delivery form our exact location and the words, "Do Not Use GPS." Of course, the driver tried to get to us by using GPS. Had to interrupt a meeting I was in twice to give him directions.

 Prep work is the most time consuming part of any project. The bottom level needs to be straight, level side to side and back to front.











Ran a string line to keep the wall straight. It was raised for each level to keep us straight.

 Now it is time to dig out where the blocks go. You want your bottom blocks to be below grade level. This gives you wiggle room for leveling and it ties your wall into the ground.

 Load of sand to use as our base. We are going to have lots of mason sand left over from our rock work. We are trying to find places to use it.








Good start on the wall.

 My job was to dig the trench and keep Bill supplied with sand and blocks. He had the job of being on his hands and knees all day and building the wall.

We keep finding random poured concrete around the property.  We found a huge piece that had been poured for some reason. It wasn't just buried 2 feet below grade it had been poured for a reason. There was no place for a post or anything. It was just in the way of the wall.  Luckily, I have a world class strong man as a husband and he was able to break enough of it off  for us to continue.

 No explanation of why this would be here.

 There was a void that needed to be filled so we put the concrete chunks there.

If we had waited another month we probably wouldn't have been able to dig our trench. We definitely have clay here. There was a three foot stretch I couldn't do. Bill had to get up off his knees and take my place at the shovel.

We could only go so far before needing to put landscape fabric behind the wall and back fill to give the wall stability. At one point I was putting the fabric behind the wall, bumped it and it became a leaning wall. Even after pulling it straight if you are being critical and eyeing the wall from the side you can see the spot.

 We got to this point of the wall all by ourselves and then the Calvary arrived. Darrick had come over to work on Bill's pickup. Then Tiffany and the kids came. The boys filled in behind the wall until the lure of the Go-Kart and 4 Wheeler was too much and they had to go play.

Darrick's cousin, Jonathan, came over to discuss the pickup with Darrick and then his wife, Stephanie, and their two kids came. Suddenly they jumped right in and were building right along with us. Stephanie even had her cute sandals and too nice to be building a wall clothes on.

 We really go going with all this help! 

Yes, I can be a little cockeyed at times.

 Even the little ones got in on the act. Brynnlee figured out what we were doing and found herself a  hoe to pull together some dirt and put it behind the wall.

 Mallory and I worked a big shovel together to clean up the ditch and put that dirt behind the wall.

 Sometimes it takes two.

 Great job everyone!

 Jonathan, being the engineer that he is, couldn't just end the wall. He made it very pretty.

Love the View

The construction site is really overwhelming. I like to keep a clean and neat work site. Can't do that with the masons working.

 This is our front yard at the moment

That's okay, look at the beautiful rock work going up. They should be finished in the next few days. So happy.

First Impression

First impressions are important. Right now we just have an ugly mailbox. Its door won't stay closed, it is attached to a wood post, and it is stuck in a stack of cinder blocks.  Our land is beautiful and nothing is uglier than our mailbox and that is the first thing you see when you come to the drive. After enlarging the driveway and adding culvert we have been moving the mailbox to different spots to see where we wanted it. We have watched how the mailman pulls in and out and how we drive up to it. We want to be completely off the road when we are stopped at the mailbox.

First thing was to get 14,  80 pound bags of concrete. 

 Bill had to dig down 20 inches to put in an 18 inch base. Our mason wants 18 inches of concrete. Mailboxes lean because they are only driven on one side. And with our earthquakes he wants stability. Nothing will hold the mail box onto the concrete. All mailboxes have to be breakaway in case a car hits them.

 He had to wheelbarrow the dirt down the ditch to where we need it for back fill on the retaining wall. No way to get the yard cart down there.

 I had to haul the electrical cords and garden hoses down from the house to the street.

 Luckily, I had Artie to help me pull these heavy cumbersome things down.

 Beautiful work. The PVC is what the mason will measure out from to lay the rock.

Too Much of a Good Thing

Love all the windows in the Office! Come late afternoon the sun is coming in way too strong for me to see my computer screen. First thing in the morning can be an issue also. We were wanting to leave the windows unadorned; alas we need to put in blinds. Just on the West side so far. Hopefully, the north wall will never need them

 They are way too long so we had to remove slats and shorten them.

Still lots of light and our view but, I can angle them to keep the glare off of my screen.

Men of Steel

Masons are back to work on our rock. They have been gone for two weeks; just in every once in a while to chip on the rock.

Before any more rock can go up the big angle iron has to go over the window. That is a very big piece of steel laying on the ground. We had to order it in from Houston no one here had a piece big enough.

 Of course, Bill wants to get in and help.

 Up on top of the scaffolding.

Slide it along the top.

 Lift it into place above the window.

 Bill brought out his impact drill. The angle iron was bolted to the header above the window. There will be 4 tons of rock above it so it needs to be as stable as possible. Bill and Darrick had already drilled the holes in the angle iron using Daddy's drill press.

Next it was time to move more scaffolding in. I went inside when I heard them say, "Let's see if we can get this in without breaking the window". We cut the bushes way way back but they are still something to work around.

 Iron is up! Scaffold is in place! Window is still there! Header rock is in above the window!!!!!

Human Food or Deer Food

Sutton came this weekend by himself and wanted to earn some money. So, we embarked on a big project. We planted a Strawberry Garden. It was just grass; so it wasn't just digging some holes and dropping plants in the ground.  We figured out a good place to put his garden and started digging  out the existing soil. We dug down 10-12 inches.

 It was back breaking work. Luckily, no rocks, just one concrete overpour. He learned the meaning of the saying "working your fingers to the bone". Yes, you see him wearing house shoes to do this tough job. Last weekend he sliced his heel and is not able to wear shoes yet. He finally put on a pair of my tennis shoes to have a solid sole. Sometimes men, even at 8 years of age, just have to try it themselves before agreeing with a woman.







 We left to have lunch in town with Bill who was working on a rent house. Since we were in town we bought the plants.  He loaded his 4 Wheeler with all the plants and brought them to the work area. We were still hours away from time to plant.

 Botany lesson of the day. That little flower will be the strawberry. The plants had about 4 stages of strawberry development for him to see.











After digging out all the dirt he had to put in landscaping edging. To make the corners he learned to use a hacksaw to make miter corners. Cutting out some of the plastic let him bend the edging around the corners.














Then he had to level the border.

Now, it was time to create our super secret special strawberry mix. He used top soil, sand, and compost. He was allowed to drive the big 4 Wheeler for this project. Only, because I was right there with him and no one else was around. Just do the job, no extra joy riding.

 Sometimes hands work the best to mix everything together.

 Dig a hole and fill it in. Sutton learned that some jobs feel as if  you are spinning your wheels. We talked a lot about sayings today. He completely lined the bed with landscape cloth before adding the special mix. We tried to think of everything we could to slow down the creep of Bermuda grass.

 He made a beautiful garden!!!!!

 Time for plants. We are hoping the deer leave enough strawberries for us to have some. He chose the ever bearing variety instead of the one time harvest to give us more of an opportunity to enjoy some berries. He went online and researched plants deer do not like and decided on which ones we will add to see if that helps. Love our deer but sometimes they can be an issue. We planted Dusty Miller and later we will add Snap Dragons and Wax Begonias.

 Everything is planted and time to water.

Can't wait for strawberries eaten straight from the garden.