Gabion, and a whole lot of dirt.
Quarantine day #Whatever. Since we can't !@#$%^&* ski or hike in the national forests, we're still getting outside. Shoveling. Lots of shoveling. The end goal is an outdoor kitchen area complete with a wood-fired Neapolitan pizza oven. So far it looks like this.
We poured the concrete countertop (the cutout is for the fire bricks in the to-be oven) and built one of the (many) gabion walls. Back in March on the weekend it snowed, it looked like this:
The rocks above Sefton's toy bins were loose and likely to fall down. So we did a little bit of digging.
I have to say… the $30 we splurged for a mattock was the best $30 we've spent all year. We'll use it to dig out for a door in our empty water cistern (the concrete structure at the top right of the photo above) and for the trail leading up to it.
Once all the dirt was dug, it was time to pour some concrete.
Well, first we had to design the countertop. Then build the form and lay it in place.
We pulled out a bunch of rebar from some of the garden beds that are literally disintegrating, drove them into the ground around the form, and attached it to them to anchor it in place. Once a little concrete was poured, I embedded a sheet of rebar into it.
Umm, yeah I didn't get a photo of that. It's ok. I did get a photo of our coffee. K's idea was to help out the small businesses so I ran to Little Red's. For what it's worth, everyone seems über-friendly during this pandemic. And somehow the gal knew what we were doing. Seriously. K's is on the left, mine is on the right. It was a little freaky.
Once all the concrete was poured (it took six bags, exactly how many I picked up), K did the smoothing.
Pro.
After a few days of drying, we took off the form and could get to work building the gabion walls. The beauty of them is we could use detritus from around the yard to fill the backsides of the cages. And we have a lot of detritus. First up: that concrete countertop that's been resting on the retaining wall like it is in the photo above since we moved in (it's apparently a botched attempt at the concrete countertop in our bathroom).
Enter: K…
Boom. Literally. Then I took a few swings.
Good times. Meanwhile, someone played on his dirt pile. : )
While Mommy and Daddy filled the first cage with rocks. Again, we have lots of rocks in the yard. We won't be a problem filling gabion cages…
And, back to the beginning, we're done with one cage.
We actually filled two more today. Moving right along.
We poured the concrete countertop (the cutout is for the fire bricks in the to-be oven) and built one of the (many) gabion walls. Back in March on the weekend it snowed, it looked like this:
The rocks above Sefton's toy bins were loose and likely to fall down. So we did a little bit of digging.
I have to say… the $30 we splurged for a mattock was the best $30 we've spent all year. We'll use it to dig out for a door in our empty water cistern (the concrete structure at the top right of the photo above) and for the trail leading up to it.
Once all the dirt was dug, it was time to pour some concrete.
Well, first we had to design the countertop. Then build the form and lay it in place.
We pulled out a bunch of rebar from some of the garden beds that are literally disintegrating, drove them into the ground around the form, and attached it to them to anchor it in place. Once a little concrete was poured, I embedded a sheet of rebar into it.
Umm, yeah I didn't get a photo of that. It's ok. I did get a photo of our coffee. K's idea was to help out the small businesses so I ran to Little Red's. For what it's worth, everyone seems über-friendly during this pandemic. And somehow the gal knew what we were doing. Seriously. K's is on the left, mine is on the right. It was a little freaky.
Once all the concrete was poured (it took six bags, exactly how many I picked up), K did the smoothing.
Pro.
After a few days of drying, we took off the form and could get to work building the gabion walls. The beauty of them is we could use detritus from around the yard to fill the backsides of the cages. And we have a lot of detritus. First up: that concrete countertop that's been resting on the retaining wall like it is in the photo above since we moved in (it's apparently a botched attempt at the concrete countertop in our bathroom).
Enter: K…
Boom. Literally. Then I took a few swings.
Good times. Meanwhile, someone played on his dirt pile. : )
While Mommy and Daddy filled the first cage with rocks. Again, we have lots of rocks in the yard. We won't be a problem filling gabion cages…
And, back to the beginning, we're done with one cage.
We actually filled two more today. Moving right along.
