PAVERS ALL IN!!

We waited to start sawing again until 8:00am. 

In the meantime, I got the last area prepped and ready to lay the bricks onto.  I had to run down to McLendon's Hardware and get another two bags of sand.

We were finished cutting all the pieces by 11:00am.  We cleaned up the saw and returned it before lunch.

After lunch, I cleaned up our work area and tools and put everything away.  I can't hardly believe the mess that masonry saw makes.  Yuck.  There was slurry everywhere.  We had most everything covered in plastic, but the ground was covered in it. 

All of our scraps fit into a three gallon bucket.  We used  almost all of the little pieces up!

I was too pooped to do anymore today.

Here's where we started this morning, with the far area pretty much done, and just beginning to lay out the fancy stuff on this side.

Darrell did all of the cutting with the saw.

This is what it looked like at the end of the day.

Here's looking at it from the other direction - you can't really see the 'tendrils' because of the lighting.

SAWING THE PAVERS

Today is the day I've been waiting for.  I was up and at Home Depot when they opened.  I got 15 more of the big pavers and 120 of the 6 by 9s and some red bricks for our fancy stuff.

Since I was the only customer in the garden shop, one of the guys that worked there helped me load it all up and get it into our pickup.

After Darrell took the pallet of pavers out with Big Joe, I headed down to my favorite rental store, Center Tool Rental in White Center, just a few miles from home, and rented the masonry wet saw.

Darrell cut while I fitted the remaining bricks.  I had one piece left to fit by the time we stopped for the day.  Darrell worked on the area near the house, fitting in the cut pieces and designing and fitting the red bricks for the 'tendril'.  We didn't get done.  There is still one area left where we have a lot of designing and custom work to do.

Big Joe helps out again, removing the pavers from the pickup.

Wet saw set up on the rolling scissors cart.

This is what it looked like at the end of the day, after I cleaned up a little.

The walkway goes all the way to the patio now.

It is looking so nice!

THE BIG PUSH

Okay, this is the week I'm going to get my project done - or really close to done!

I've got to lay all of the 6 by 6s and 9 by 12s, so I'll know how many more I need before I head back to Home Depot.  (There was a change of plan since I ordered them, so I know I'm going to be short.)

See the little blue paper?  That's the pattern, I had to have a cheat sheet.

From the side, I'm getting the hang of the pattern.

After lunch I went back to Home Depot and got more pavers and sand.  Darrell made a pallet that his Big Joe would be able to lift out of the truck.  That's one less time I have to pick them up and move them...yea!

Okay, this is as far as I could get without a masonry saw, which we are now ready to go rent.

ANOTHER THURSDAY

Took another Thursday off work to get some work done on my project.  I want to get the next section done next week, so I prepped the area for it today.  And the last of the 6" by 9" bricks for the walkway are underneath the other pavers.  I have to move them, so I can figure out how many I'm short. 

I'm all out of 6 by 9 pavers, this is as far as I can go with the walkway.

I had to move all of the 6 by 6's and 9 by 12s to get to the 6 by 9s underneath.

Can't see it, it's over exposed, but that is as far as my bricks got me.

This is the next area I'm doing.

This area will be laid with the 6 by 6s and the 9 by 12s.

I

LAYING THE WALKWAY PAVERS

Saturday, I started putting down some gravel, then sand, then the pavers in between the border stones I laid yesterday.

Having a few custom-made (by my wonderful husband) skrees made the job much easier.

After lunch he even came and helped me and things went a lot faster.  He did all of the heavy lifting.

Starting at the beginning, the easiest part.

Things got a little more difficult when it started into the curve.

The curve is very interesting though.

Here's how far we made it for the day.

The view from the porch - it looks awesome!

We used the last of the 6 by 9 inch bricks that were on the pallets.  The rest of them are under the other bricks, which will have to be moved before we can proceed with the walkway.

After doing some quick figuring, I think I'm going to be about 120 bricks short, too.

BACK TO WORK ON THE PAVERS

I freaked out yesterday, and had serious doubts about what I was doing with the pond.

So, I'm back working on the pavers.  That I can understand.

First things first, I'm putting the old 'red' border bricks down for the new borders.  That will make it much easier when I do the underlayment for the pavers.  

I started yesterday afternoon on the layout.

I got a little bit done.

I got the first part done, then started the curve.

The border bricks are laid out waiting to be set into place.

Almost done, one last curve to do.

Done for the day. 

It got pretty hot out by the time I finished for the day.  I needed lots of water, a shower and some rest under the trees with my favorite book.

(and some ice for my aching wrists)

TERRY-FORMING

It's actually starting to look like a pond!

I spent most of the day moving rocks around, digging and removing rocks and shaping the hole for the pond...terraforming.

The weather was perfect.  It was cloudy and cool all morning.  Mom came by and we all went out to lunch at Brass Tacks in Georgetown where we had very tasty sandwiches.

The sun started to peek out, and the clouds started to dissipate by the time we got back home.

I put in a few more hours and have the pond mostly shaped.  There is still a few wheelbarrows full of material that need to be removed.  Tomorrow, hopefully.

First I started forming the waterfall area.

Then I started removing dirt and rocks to form the pond.

Moved lots of dirt.

Here's what it looked like at the end of the day.

Still lots to do.

I called the store where I'm buying the pump and stuff.  They are selling stuff like crazy and are out of the pump and liner that I need.  So, I ordered what I need.  It should be here next week.

THE TUB IS OUT AND THE BIG ROCK MOVED

It quit raining, so I enlisted Darrell's help to move the big rock over a few feet.  That exposed the last side of the plastic tub-pond and I was able to remove it from the ground.  It came out a lot easier than I thought it would.

There was also a plastic liner that I had exposed, so I started to extracate it.   That proved to be troublesome.  There was dirt on top of the liner and big rocks folded into it.  I couldn't figure out was was going on there, but I just kept removing material as I came upon it.

After some thought, I think what it was, was there was an original pond that was larger.  Someone decided to make the pond smaller so they just threw a bunch of big rocks (and some garbage) and dirt over half of the liner and and folded the other half over that and covered the whole thing with dirt.  Then with the remaining whole they inserted the plastic tub-pond.

So, it ended up less digging for me anyway.  Once I got those rocks and liners out of there I had a pretty big hole....not big enough, but it's on its way to being a pond.

The old liner with rocks underneath it.

They threw in dirt and garbage to fill the hole.

Working away at extracating the old liner.

A lot of rocks came out of that hole...and under the plastic liner was a blue blanket liner I had to dig out also.

That's the old tub upside down and some of the garbage that came out of the hole.

Here's what it looks like at the end of the day.  The big rock is on the upper left.   Most of these smaller rocks came out of the hole.  You can kind of see the hole.  My new pond will cover that whole area, up to where the loose rocks are.

Lots of digging left to do.   Tomorrow.

WHAT TO DO WITH THIS BIG ROCK

Right on the edge of the empty old pond is the biggest rock. 

It needs to be moved before I can remove the plastic pond liner.

I would like to move it out where it can be appreciated, because right now it's mostly under the tree.

I dug as much dirt and rocks out from around it and used the pry bar to budge it.

I tried moving it.  It moved maybe a couple inches.

I'm going to need help...it's definitely  a two man rock.

The big rock on the edge of the pond.

I budged it maybe a couple inches.

It started to rain so I gave up for the day.

I'm going to get some help to tackle this big guy.

PREPARING THE SITE

I took the day off work so that I could continue on the Backyard Project.  

I took most of the top layer off, which was mostly round rocks and the red cinders underneath.  I've nowhere to put all this material anymore.  So, I'm making a pile.  We'll deal with it all later.

Here's what it looks like afterwards.  The new pond will be where all those round rocks still are.

You can see the empty old pond, which still needs to be dug out.

Here's the pile of 15 wheelbarrow loads.

I quit after 15 wheelbarrow loads.  I was getting tired and it was getting very hot out.

Ended up being around 80 degrees today.

EAGLE A

Seen at the Cedar Hills Landfill, where I work.

OLD POOL IS EMPTIED

Spent a few hours this afternoon shoveling the rocks out of the old plastic pool.  It confuses me as to why whoever put this pond in put in a three foot deep pool, then filled it with rocks.

I also struggled trying to get that fern out of there.  I started out trying to be gentle and save as much roots as possible.  But after fighting with it for a while, I gave up and started hacking at it until it was out and I was bruised and battered.  There was still a substantial amount of root mat.  I took it out to the front yard and planted it in it's new home and wished it luck.  It is a very nice fern.  Live long and prosper.

Lots of mud and rocks.

Darrell came and helped, too.

Here's what it looked like after - fern gone.

Pond empty, now I need to get it out of the ground.

There are still a lot of rocks to move, including the very large one above.  I'm worried it's going to fall into that pond hole - and we'd never get it out!

Once I get the rocks moved, I can start digging the old pond out of there.

I'M AN EXCAVATOR

Shovel, sort, dump.  Shovel, sort, dump.

There appears to be no end in sight.

Sifting the dirt out of the rocks.

t

Another wheelbarrow load emptied.

Starting down the other side.

I guess I made a little progress.
That's enough for one day.

I think I moved eleven wheelbarrow loads of dirt and about that of rocks today.

I'm tired.