Back to the Chores

My sister and her husband left around 10 AM this morning to return to their home in NJ. Al 9my brother-in-law) has an over-50 bowling tournament to participate in on Sunday. He’s more than a pretty fair kegler and I wish him well.

Last night we had a blue norther swept through with winds of 40 miles per hour and just a sprinkling of rain. (We had only 0.1 inch in the gauge this morning.) The front also brought substantially cooler temperatures. Around 10 PM on Friday night we could actually watch the temperature fall some 15 degrees. This morning at 7 AM the outdoor temperature was just 46 degrees while the indoor temp was just 64. Further, the breeze was still quite brisk and the air was very, very dry so it felt even cooler. Perfect working weather.

As soon as Ruthann and Al left, I started out on my earth moving project. I intend to move the 16 cubic yards of earth that were delivered the other day to the space behind the retaining walls and into raised beds. This sandy loam soil will provide an excellent base for perennials along the driveway and for garden vegetables next spring. (That is, if we can keep the raccoons and other critters away from them!)

When the soil was delivered, the driver asked Terry if we had a backhoe to move it to where we needed it. HA! I’ve got the back, a rake, a shovel and a wheelbarrow and I'm not afraid to use them. I donned my work gloves and grabbed the tools of ignorance and went to work.


The tools of ignorance.

While some might call this “work”, and I won’t argue with them, I prefer to think of it as “practical physical therapy.” Instead of doing some silly exercises prescribed by a doctor or therapist, the steady shoveling, pushing of the wheelbarrow, and raking out of the soil, not only exercises your arms, legs and lower back, but it accomplishes something.

In this instance, I worked from 10 AM until 5:30 PM to move around 8 cubic yards of soil from this pile:


To this deep trench behind the 20-foot long retaining wall.



The entrance to the house is now substantially safer to approach (before there was a two to three foot drop to the bottom of the trench and even more before the wall was erected) and there is now some soil in which to plant some shade tolerant perennials.

I’m not quite done with this particular area yet, however. I figure it will take another 12 to 15 wheelbarrow loads to raise the soil level up to the level of the driveway.

On the opposite side of the walkout basement is a second but much smaller retaining wall. That area will also require some stone and soil fill behind it even though it is under the deck and not likely to be a good place for plantings.

So my work is cut out for tomorrow. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 wheelbarrow loads of soil and stone will get moved. The raised beds will just have to wait until I can get some landscaping timbers or pressure treated 2x6 lumber and some re-bar.