IKWYDLS 2012

While the kitchen was on hold, I have been working on another project...

I have a friend who replaced her landscape rocks with wood chips and is giving away the rocks to anyone who will come and haul them away.  It's an hour away (Fargo), but still much cheaper than buying the rocks-- and I probably would have driven to Fargo to buy the rocks anyway because there is more selection in Fargo.  The first load I put on the north side of the house (where we previously had wood chips, ironically.)  Wood chips bio-degrade.  Between that and the dirt I dug and replaced to do the stucco and painting last summer, all we had around that flower bed was dirt.  Now we have rocks.  Looks better and keeps the dirt from splashing on the wall when it rains.  The second load I put around the back steps and along the east side of the house, which is the side I posted for most of last year's pictures. 

Here is the timeline, then, for that side of the house going back to last year:

Now, hopefully, you also realize that the window wells have been raised-- because that was more work that is not pictured and I want credit for it.  Raising them makes for better drainage on that side and also allows more rock in the area without all of them falling into the wells.  Under the rock is a weed barrier, btw.




When we poured cement for our garage and driveway, our neighbor asked our contractor if he would fix the concrete at her front door and walk:

He said he would, but he wanted another project like ours for it, first, so that he could use the leftover for her small job.  That was a good plan, but he never got back to her.  I wanted to do it for her last summer, but I got too busy and overwhelmed by my own project.  So, I decided to resolve that issue this summer and now was the best time to do it (work is going to be crazy-busy again, starting next week.)

So today I took PTO because I had to burn a day before the end of August or I lose it.  So, I got up almost as early as usual, and drove to Fargo.  Now, the big plan was to buy a wheelbarrow in Fargo rather than locally because prices are too high locally.  But, the places I stopped did not have the one I wanted.  That, by the way, would be the one with the funnel on the end, which I thought would be helpful for pouring stuff like concrete.  It is.  I know this because I bought the one here in town.  The price wasn’t so bad, anyway, compared to similar sizes in Fargo.  But, another reason for the trip was to score some more rocks and the wheelbarrow was supposed to help with that project… except I didn’t buy one.  I did get some more rocks, though, the same way I got all the others:  One pail at a time.  However, the owner of the rocks was there this time and we got to talk a bit (about our kids—you know how that goes) and she helped with her own pail and shovel.  Sweet deal.

When I got home, I unloaded all the rocks.  I have now put rocks everywhere that I have ever considered putting them.  I really don’t need any more.  But, they are not all gone yet.  Maybe I will ask my neighbor if she wants to do the same thing on her troublesome side of her house.

Then, I started in on my real job for the day.  I wheeled my wheelbarrow and shovel 50 feet to the left and started excavating the junk dirt that was under Mary’s cement problem.  Some of it is sand, so it was a little bit correct, but mostly it is various forms of black and gray sticky mud.  I piled that up on cardboard and her sidewalk.  I am not sure what I will do with it.  But, it can sit there until the rest is done.  The objective was to get that all out and my forms set up so that I could begin filling in the class 5 gravel that is the best material under concrete.  Technically, it is the expensive stuff and more than I needed.  However, the minimum charge for bringing a truck of anything anywhere is $65.  So, my 3 yards of class 5 costs the same as 1 yard of class 3.  The delivery was scheduled for 1:00.  He was a little later than that and I wasn’t quite ready anyway, but pretty close.

Here’s the math:  The piece I am doing is 8ft x 6ft which is 48 square feet.  The slab should be 4” thick.  4 inches is one third of a foot (12/4=3) so the cubic measurement is 48 x 1/3 or 48/3=16 cubic feet.  A “yard” is actually a cubic yard, so 3x3x3 = 27 cubic feet.  So, I needed less than one yard.  But, I have another project for pavers on the side of my garage that currently has no walkway (it borders the garden) so I need about 1.5 yards for that.  And, as I already mentioned, 3 yards costs the same as one yard, so since he is coming, he might as well bring all of it.

Here’s the downside:  moving 3 yards of gravel with a spade and a wheelbarrow is a day’s worth of hard labor by itself.  I also had to spread the bit I needed for the job around and tamp it down.  I did all of that, but then I had to get the rest of the pile off the public sidewalk (to be courteous)—one load at a time.  Well, as I was doing that a dude cruises by in his Bobcat, skid-steer loader with a jack-hammer attachment.  Obviously, he kept on going.  He is a contractor working on some curb repair for the city down the block a ways (yonder, if you prefer.)  But, on his way back, he had his bucket attachment and he swings over and asks if I would like to make my day 20 times easier.  Well, as a matter of fact, I would.  He couldn’t actually haul it all the way to where I needed it without making a mess of the garden, but he was able to move almost all the pile much closer in a few minutes—all for a simple, “thank you.”  Thank you, Lindberg Construction dude!  I still had to move every ounce of the 3 yards with my shovel and wheelbarrow, but I had to move it a much shorter distance.  Technically, the measure of that difference is a savings of horsepower.  But, unless you are an engineer or a geek, that’s just boring.  (Hint:  the definition of horsepower is actually a measure of force and distance, so reducing the distance reduces the horsepower requirement.)

After a few days for it to dry and to allow me to put the bottom step together, this is the finished project.