Day 132 - May 16th

Today's picture is an in-progress shot of my latest project - the steps. Ya ready for a long explanation? Too bad, I'll give one anyway.

I don't remember if I posted or not, but my next major project is the kids playset. I'm going to build this one. BUT, in order to do that, I have to do a couple things. First, the space where the playset is going to go has a pile of gravel. AND it's got a few depressions - when our neighbor waters, parts become big puddles.

Why is their a big pile of gravel? Because several years ago, I saw the yard completed - in my mind. All the various constructions done, etc. Then I sat down and roughed out what materials I would need to complete all those projects. I estimated, for instance, how much gravel I would need for ALL the projects put together. And then I had it delivered. I did not anticipate our major financial challenges that culminated in 2007 and resulted in me having to get a second job and work 75 hours a week. But it happened and I still work that.

So there are four major projects needing gravel: the north bottom stairs, the east deck outside the view gate, the fountain area and it's drain system and the shed's. So this weekend, I tackled the north bottom stairs - because it accomplished multiple goals. 1) it has been one of the most "undone" areas of the backyard. 2) it is using a LOT of gravel. 3) it supplied me with a LOT of dirt - to fill in those depressions.

It was tough work - to haul out the dirt, I had to carry it up the hill to the wheelbarrow and then carefully get the wheelbarrow up a three foot high wall - balanced on a single 2x4 scrap. And it was hot weather! I brought up 5 or 6 loads of dirt before I declared myself done. The rest of the dirt (about 6 more loads) got tossed over the fence into the woods one shovel full at a time.

I made it through most of the project on Saturday and then finished all but one row of three boards on Sunday after I got home from my 9 hour shift at Fred Meyer. I would have gotten more done had Lowe's actually carried decent materials, but they didn't and I had to drive an hour out of my way to go to Home Depot, which had superb materials. Why, oh why, couldn't we have gotten a Home Depot!

OK, enough talking. Here's the site after some prep work on Friday. The first shot is from above, the second is approximately the same angle as "the shot of the day" above.


Here's the shot from above taken Saturday night.
Finally, if you've actually read through all this, I wanted to tell you what that big space is there. That space was actually inspired from a book and I've been planning to build it for three years now. The book? Winnie the Pooh. There is a line in the book about Winnie sitting in his "thinking place" and I wanted to create one. This is fairly separated from the rest of the yard and I plan on putting a bench against the fence in that big space. It can be a little retreat from everyone so you can "think".