Dirt Work

Before

After

I spent most of the day yesterday crippling my back and shoulders in order to widen our walk way and install a small retaining barrier. Not really a retaining wall because it's only one railroad tie high, but enough to stop the dirt from washing across our walk way. (I had removed the rocks along the side walk before I took the picture.) It seems every winter our walk dwindles down to the width of the snow shovel. I thought that if we started with a wider walk we could prevent this from happening. Considering our snow banks will soon be over our heads, it makes it challenging to bring anything of substantial size down this narrow walk and into our house during the winter.

I did this while Jim was at work as to surprise him when he got home. He was surprised and loved how wide and straight I managed to get it. I used stakes and twine to mark a line. Then I grabbed the pick mattock and went to pickin'! I had to chop out quite a bit of the existing slope to make it level across the walk. The last half, being dirt already, I used some of the chopped slope to level it out further. The dirt portion leads around the corner to our main shed, so we keep it cleared during the winter as well. (Earlier this month, I shoveled out earthen steps to the small brown shed in the trees on the left. Before it was just a slope which I would slide down in the winter with whatever I had in my arms, trying not to crash and injure myself.) Once everything was picked and shoveled level I needed to set the railroad ties in place. However, I was home alone and those things are HEAVY. Now I consider myself a strong woman but lifting an entire one by myself wasn't going to happen. I could lift one end, though. Do I drag it? Do I roll it? Roll? Idea! So, I started looking around.

My Back Saving Device

I found my garden scooter with the removable seat and removed the seat. Yet there was the post hole for the seat sticking up in the middle making it uneven. I tied some scrap wood to the frame to level out the top creating a small platform and Voila! ... a railroad tie mover! Since the ties where up hill of where I needed them I simply lifted on end, scooted the scooter underneath and guided them down the walk way. The scooter has fixed wheels which was great because it didn't try to turn on it's own. In the middle of all this the Amerigas man showed up to fill our propane tank. He was quite impressed with my "scootering." Finally, with the ties in place I back filled against them and spread composted pine needles over the dirt walk way. That will help cut down on mud when the rain and snow comes. It also helps cut down on any weed growth on the path due to the acidity of the needles.

While digging up the slope I rescued as many worms as I saw and added them to my outside compost pile. Slightly displaced, hopefully the abundance of food will make up for their relocation. The railroad ties were another "Freebie" that Jim had brought home. So all in all it only cost me an aspirin in the end to create our new wider walk way.

Walk On!!