Moving more dirt.

I spent a goodly portion of this afternoon moving more dirt. The soil behind the big retaining wall had settled with the more than two inches of rain we had last week so I moved some more dirt to top it off and bring the level closer to that of the driveway. The small retaining wall on the other side of the deck had received no fill yet so another dozen wheelbarrows of dirt went there.

Once those areas had gotten their fill, it was time to think of the raised beds for the garden/flowers. Terry and I had picked up 16 landscaping timbers on Saturday with the idea of building a U-shaped bed with the redbud tree in the center of the U. Since there be rocks in that there soil where the bed is to go, the U will not be symmetrical. One side will be 4'x8' and the other will be 8'x8'. A 4'x4' section will bridge the two and form the center of the U. I cut a couple of timbers for the 4' lengths and laid all the first course out where It would fit around the tree and the monster rocks I knew I couldn't move. After diner, I grabbed my big, 16 lb., black iron bar with the wedge on one end and the tamper on the other (I like to call it a Johnson bar) and started lifting and dropping that wedge end into the soil where the timbers would go. I hit rocks. Most were small but there were occasional monsters. I got one out that measures about 16"x16" and was a good 5 or 6 inches thick. Once I levered that beast out of the ground I started trying to loosen all the soil with in the bed area. It's a combination of stone and clay and with out being loosened, any water passing through the fill dirt I place on top will not soak down any further but would pool up making the fill soil mud and probably killing any plants we put into the beds. One hour of lifting and dropping the Johnson bar, prying up more--if somewhat smaller--stones, bending over to pick those stones out of the loosened soil...and I was pooped. I got about 16 square feet loosened out of the 112 square feet of the bed. This is not going to be easy. I almost hope I run into some more large stones like the one I mentioned earlier.

At least if it gets too hot, I can always go into the basement and paint the now sanded walls.