Anyone own a shovel? The continuing saga...

BeforeDespite Q-Bert's best efforts at forcing us into a plan, progress was made

Kudos to Moricerevek for his much more appreciated "what can I do next?" methodology. This and not taking a one hour support call in the middle of the dig made his efforts much more noticeable. (Ed's Note: "kill Q-Bert" is not an accepted option in the "what can I do next?" queue. Not that I checked, of course.)

Honourable mention to Coxxorz for loaning us his shovel, "it's the least I can do." You're right, it was.

Saturday

Despite our best efforts, progress was made. The brilliant (but oddly, much questioned) last minute idea of borrowing a heavy duty roto-tiller to rip up all the dirt and sod made the digging and earth moving substantially easier. Digging out the sod with shovels was difficult, after three passes with the roto-tiller we could shift everything with a rake.

The roto-tiller in question was older than all of us there, sounded like a low flying helicopter (that's what Q-Bert and Moricerevek thought the sound was as my neighbour drove it down the street and up my driveway), and to top it off moved at the pace of an arthritic octogenarian. With two artificial hips. It had a fast mode (arthritic octogenarian with no artificial hips) but that was only for transporting from one location to another. Roto-tilling was in slow mode only. This was a great roto-tiller and did a fantastic job, just not fast. Oh, and it was big and kind of unwieldy.

Anyway, Q-Bert did 3 passes with the roto-tiller and then answered the phone. Moricerevek did the other fifty or so. I made a coffee, sat on a lawn chair and read my magazine. Or, at least, I faked it, trying to get a reaction out of Moricerevek. Q-Bert nearly killed himself laughing. Moricerevek and his keen situational awareness continued to roto-till. And continued... and continued...

Eventually I finished my coffee, put down my magazine (actually it was a pretty good article), and went to see if I could help Moricerevek. Q-Bert stayed on the phone. Thanks big guy.

Site supervisorThe most entertaining aspect of the weekend was a single robin who took it upon himself to carefully inspect our work as it progressed. He just wouldn't leave and was always there. Including during the (loud) roto-tilling. He followed Moricerevek around from about 10 feet away. He stuck it out for the entire two days and I expect to see more of the Robin as we finish off the project. This was one fearless and dedicated Robin. He took his supervisory role seriously. Site supervisor supervisor



Saturday's total progress?

1. moved play structure
2. dug out gigantic roots behind pirate ship
3. roto-tilled area
4. placed 6x6s
5. flattened half of area

On to Sunday

Our goal for Sunday was to get the play structure back in place for Rolly to use. With no help expected Guba and I started early and worked for a large portion of the day. To our surprise AJ showed up for two hours in the afternoon and proceeded to do substantially more work in her two hours than Q-Bert did in his entire day! But we still love you Q-Bert, honest.

Well...

We ignored the Pirate Ship half and finished off the area around the play structure. We filled, hauled and dumped wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of pea gravel to fill in the area. We have over half the area done and gravel mountain still hasn't substantially shrunk. We asked for 4" deep over a 20'x40' area and got 13.4 tons. We have filled to about a 6" depth at least and still have over half of gravel mountain left with only a third of the area to cover. I think we need to dig deeper...

Gravel Mountain: before

Oh, to live on Gravel Mountain
With the barkers and the colored balloons,
You can't be twenty on Gravel Mountain
Though you're thinking that you're leaving there too soon,
You're leaving there too soon.

We had two wheelbarrows and two shovels. We put in place a relay system between myself, Guba and AJ. One dumped a wheelbarrow as the other two filled the empty wheelbarrow. When the first wheelbarrow returned we rotated positions swapping shovel spots and a new person dumping the full wheelbarrow. This worked surprisingly well.

After: Undergoing extensive testingSunday's total progress?

1. leveled and bricked out play structure foundation
2. placed edging around side and front of area
3. rolled area
4. placed ground cover
5. moved play structure back
6. shovelled and dumped way too many wheel barrows of pea gravel

The continuing story

We got done what we wanted to do for this weekend. Guba and I both feel like the previously mentioned arthritic octogenarian. I am sure Moricerevek, Q-Bert and AJ are feeling sore as well. Just the Pirate Ship area to be finished off. We hope to do some work during the week but may not get to it until this weekend. We shall see. I know Stormblade is due in the next three weeks or so. I am sure we could wait.

Still left to do:

1. dig out around the back and side of Pirate Ship
2. lay down remaining ground cover
3. haul more gravel
4. finish off front edging (15 ft short around Pirate Ship)
5. find good home for remains of gravel mountain