2012 Upper Section
This year we started
working on the project we planned last year- a playground for the kids. We begun
by reviewing last year's plans and making a few adjustments (after all, the kids
are a year older now and concerns about what P. could do have been set aside). Mr.
Man then reviewed plans for retaining walls and made adjustments to our specific
goals and needing 10 inches depth og mulch for safety around the playground. The project
is divided into two parts- 1. building retaining walls to protect herb garden and
planting beds and 2.- building the playground.
Here's a couple pictures of what it looked like in late February, before we started.
After planning, it was time to get started with destruction. That meant the rock
edging my sister D. helped us put in years ago had to come out, and that job fell
to Mr. Boy. After getting some instructions and review of safely using a sledgehammer,
crowbar, and regular hammer from Daddy, it was off to work he went!
It only took us
a few weekends as the girls wanted to help some also. We then had to find a use
for the concrete we took out. The solution- the drainage trench below the garden and
behind the new little wall section at the garden Mr. Man was putting in. We got
to break up the pieces into smaller chunks (or making homemade gravel, as we
called it).
Now that that was out of the way, moving forward. Playground items were ordered,
wood order was placed and delivered, skid steer reserved from delivery and pick up,
vacation days for Mr. Man arranged, stopping/ re-arranging kids' schedule for 6 days
handled, and rocks dropped off (plus a trip or two to our local home improvement
store for supplies). Now it was just pulling out all of the lirope and shallots
from next to the driveway as any extra dirt was going to go there to raise the level
there (which we had talked about doing for a few years anyway). That led to having to dig out
and raise the sprinklers in that area so they could actually work.
Yes, I did say skid steer delivered. Yes, Mr. Man drove it. Yes, it was scary to
watch at first, especially as the ground was a little slick and it slipped a bit.
Oh, did I mention we had to drive in the neighbor's yard and take out a section
of the fence to get the skid steer into the backyard? Oh, I left that out? Sorry!
Anyway, Mr. Man realized we had a lot more dirt in the yard than we needed. Fortunately,
the neighbor's had a sink hole in their yard, and they were out of town, so that's
where the dirt went. It was too wet to go back and forth to the front yard to bring it
that far. Oh yeah, Mr. Man got stuck in the small sink hole (2.5 square feet by 2 feet deep)
once, so that became priority to fill also.
We used a laser level to make sure the ground was to the correct depth for the area.
Next up was digging trenches to the right depth to fill with 6 inches of rocks, so they
could be tamped down and the wall placed on a 2x6 that was placed in it, where was
then secured by using deadmens and sleepers, or screwing to the deck.
Then we got to start building walls. B. was taught how to marke 16 inches on center
on the boards and how to mark where the 2x4s needed to go, Mr. Boy was charged with
bringing around lumber (with the girls help as it was pretty wet and heavy) as I
cut the wood with the chop saw for Mr. Man to build. Grandpa F. would be proud as
the walls are put together using his old nail gun. Each side of the wall is
then covered in plywood, with an ice barrier put on it. This fall, we'll come back and put on the cover 1x6 so that it looks
like the fence (which it does on depends on where the wall is in the yard).
