These are views from the top of the old quarry not far from downtown. This place is probably a two or three mile hike from our front door. One thing about the urban area of the downtown s of North Little Rock and Little Rock is the many hiking and biking trails. Across the river is a Little Rock municipal golf course and there is another golf course on our side of the river across from this golf course which is not visible in these photos. We had parked the car in a lot for the river trail just yards from the first tee box and hiked here in mere minutes.
There is a bike and hike trail several miles long that starts on the north side (our side) of the river and goes way up to the lock and dam which is not quite visible in the top photo beyond the golf course. There is a pedestrian/ biking bridge that goes over the lock and dam to the south side of the river. That bridge is called the big dam bridge. It is very high and it is impressively big. The trail comes all the way back downtown winding by the golf course and through the city to cross the river again close to the Clinton Presidential Library back to where it starts.
Over here in the quarry and Burns Park there are numerous side trails, an equestrian trail and many other recreational opportunities besides golf. Strong selling points for the area.

Ivy league

Becky wants this ivy cultivated to tastefully line the wall. Sam started to prune it, but he ran off. So I got up there and did it. It is not hard to do. It just takes little bites. Having experience in the field it took me less time to do it all than it took for Sam to get that little bit he did in the top photo.
I can only handle a short, lightweight extension ladder that is not tall enough to reach the highest vines. I am going to make him get out the tall ladder to remove the ivy up high on the stucco. I spent nothing on this. I put out the trimmings on Wednesday and the city picked it up. - Done good jobbie, almost.
I could not do this just a couple of months ago with my back and all. Now I can handle the light weight ladder. I will have to stay on top of this work to keep the ivy from getting above the brick again. I watched helplessly as the ivy grew up. I couldn't get anyone to prune it back. I feel some satisfaction to be able to attend this. And some folks thought I would never walk again.

West side

I decided to go ahead and completely underlay the gate area with brick. Now it is a solid landing. The top photo is of this side of the house taken just before we closed on it. Note the bricks stacked up. The location of the gate can be judged in the top photo by the air conditioner.
I would join this landing with walks made from concrete tiles. A tile would be about the same ratio of its area as a brick. I haven't measured to know for sure, but if a brick is twice as long as it is wide, then that is what the tiles will be, only something like 1' x 2', depending on how wide the sidewalks need to be. I would also cast half tiles. I want them to be the same thickness as the brick. I would lay them on a bed of gravel screenings as this construction. They would be laid lengthwise across the path with the half tile alternating on either end. As you walked it would be half tile on left, whole on right, next, whole on left and half on right and so on.
I need to survey the walk ways currently proposed to get my dimensions and quantities. Assuming a whole tile is 2'x 1' and a half tile is 1'x1' and using a factor of 1-1/2 tiles per running foot covering a distance of 120 feet I would need 120 whole tiles and 120 half tiles. This would give a walk that is 3' wide. My lawn sweeper is the widest wheeled tool I have. I will have to measure to see if the walk could accommodate it.
I will need a whole form and a half form to begin manufacturing the tiles. The operation would see the forms used like cookie cutters. I think I could devise methods to make a half-dozen of each tile at a time with relative ease or whatever 2 sacks of ready-mix will make.

Poor little Red Tip

First thing this morning I got out my bow saw, my loping shear and my pruning shears and went to work cleaning up this misfit of a red tip bush. I am gradually getting it into shape. While I was clipping away I remembered the year I spent working at Cantrell Gardens when I got out of High School. One thing that I got very high marks for was pruning. The old man that was part owner told me I had the touch. He did not have to tell me, because I discovered it myself that I had a talent for shaping and bringing out the natural best of a bush. From that point on he had me doing all the pruning. I have to admit that I felt pride when I heard him bragging on me to the customers. It is just that he was bragging on something that he considered to be his property and not mine and that I found irritating. He was a pecker. But I am glad that now I can connect with that happy time and translate it into ability for the here and now.
I have been waiting a long time for the right time to do a little work on this one. I'll see how it comes through the winter.

West gate fall project - Done

Here is the finished west inside gate landing. I covered it with fine sand and dragged a plastic trash can half full of sand over and around on top of it for compaction. Then I swept it with a counter brush. This exposed some joints that were not filled completely so I repeated troweling sand into the joints and compacting it. Then I swept it off again and that was that. I ended up completely re-shaping this area from two feet on either side of the gate forward two feet past the end of the brick.
I love this kind of stuff. It is like doing sculpture to me. But it is a creation that is also handy as hell. This is exactly what I dreamed of when we first began to think about a fence a couple of years ago. If I want, I can do the same on the outside of the gate, butting that brick with this brick to make a continual landing from this point to a point equal on the other side.

West gate: finishing up

I used the little broom rake and the concrete float to back fill and grade around the new brick paver gate landing. I took my trowel and sliced through all the joints to create a little space between the brick and to even them up a bit. I thought maybe this would be good enough. I ate some lunch and decided to get some fine sand and grout the bricks. At this point I liked it a lot, but it just isn't quite done.

Gate path construction

In the previous post I showed the gate before and after this fall's improvement. I did this improvement in two stages. The first stage I removed the soil and put down gravel which I took off the top of the patio. I described this in a couple of posts from 9/21 to 9/24. I was not completely satisfied with this. I had the idea to install bricks at a certain grade there.
In the top photo I have cut into the gravel base and set the first course on a grade. I would continue to pull the gravel back and form the base on which I set the pavers. In the bottom photo I am setting the last three courses. I used an old concrete float to smooth the base and form the grade to my liking. It was fairly easy.

West Gate

This past summer I began to make plans to do a bunch of projects. I plan to complete all the projects by New Years. The projects are categorized by area. The definition of complete is a moving target. The best I can to is decide to take on one of the projects and do it to the best of my ability with the materials I have on hand. My budget for new purchases is very low at this time.
In the summer when I was assessing projects I took pictures and wrote a brief description of the project. The top photo is for the project:West gate. I planned to improve the path through the gate. I had some ideas. Basically I felt I would finish it with some kind of pavers on top and that is about the extent of my planning at that time. The bottom photo is the current state of that area, and I am calling this project done.
Although it is done, the area is still subject to further improvements.

Overcoming Uncertainty

I went outside and I saw a lot of junk piling up. In the bottom photo there is the old kitchen sink and the counter tops and the hibachi stuff. In the top photo there is the stack of bricks, the piles of rubble and compost and dirt. There are also two pieces of rain gutter I would like to put up to temporarily keep the water away from the back door. There is other stuff in other places. It has rained so much I have been kept out of the yard. I'm feeling shy about getting outside and doing anything. I will go back to my fall season plan and pick up the thread of projects which have real value and do something. There is benefit in creating plans. When I made the plans I was thinking clearly. I just have to trust that and persist. Fear, doubt, worry, uncertainty - Be Gone! Let good work be done.

More Block Party

The band was set up on and by our porch. Our friend Laura is their sponsor. They were very good. John, in the brown hoodie in the bottom photo, got the grill guy and provided the keg of beer and the inflated bouncy thing for the kids. The city provided the tents, tables, chairs, and electricity. They set up the big tent and put in a temporary power board. We picked up the tables, chairs and small tents from the city services shed. The city folks could not have been nicer or more cooperative. Laura got the port-a-potties. There was also a hand washing station with that set up, as you can see in the photo.
You can see in the middle photo that there is a vendor in the small tent on the left. There is an empty tent to the right of that tent. We had three or four more of the little tents available, but no takers. This would have been a good opportunity for neighborhood vendors to get exposure. All in all this block party event is a lot of fun.

Block Party

This photo was taken at Sunday's annual Argenta Neighborhood Boosters block party. We had it in the empty lot next to our house. Becky is the current Booster President. The party was a lot of fun, but she is relieved it is over. There was a break in the rain for the party but it is still raining. The keg was in our back yard, so I had raked and mowed in preparation for the party. But other than that I haven't been in the yard.
I am tempted to go through the pictures and find something to write about, but I want this publication to give an accurate reflection of what I do in the yard. I have not done much of anything in the longest while. I am forced to spend time in recovery from the work I did for this party. I feel more active, but the activity has the price of pain. I get these thoughts that if I am not careful something could go "pop" in my lower spine and all my gains could be instantly lost.
This has been a very wet fall. I think I heard on the weather last night that it has rained 19 days out of the last 30 days. I have also been busy with things that have kept me out of the yard. I am way out of touch with the work. However, I have this plan that I created in the summer. I can just go back to that and keep working to get the things done that I want to have done by the New Year.

What to do?

It looks like it is going to rain all day. I have been fretting over what to do. But I look at it like this: The yard, all in all, is in pretty good shape. Worry because of a fear of criticism is no good.
But there is a lot I would like to get done, but fretting gets in the way. How better to deal with fretting than deciding on a definite course to achieve a desired result? The compost pile looms large. I have also collected a large pile of dirt from various projects. I must get rid of these piles because soon I will have a large pile of leaves.
There are reasons why I fret over this:

1. The spinal injury thing I got going on. The work is heavy.
   
2. The soil I produce will be full of weed seeds.
3. The work will produce a large pile of detritus consisting of rocks and concrete, pebble size to large chunks.
4. The process will produce large branches and roots that are not composted.
5. The process will produce a large pile of soil.

Here are my decisive answers point by point:

1. Heavy work: Get it done in small, manageable bites. Make the work rehabilitative exercise.
2. Weeds: There won't be anymore of this rough material once this is gone. Process and recover the soil. Spread it out in the low spots and deal with the weeds. Worst case scenario is that it takes a year or two to make good grass overtake the weeds.
3. Detritus: Pile the stuff in a spot accessible by truck and call the man who hauled the last pile off. Save up some money in the mean time to pay him.
   
4. Limbs and roots: Pile out by the street on Wednesday and the city will haul it off.
5. Soil pile (with weed seeds): This is the asset. Spread it out and go on.
   

Yet another post about my grill

I did not realize that my hibachi would fit so well on the new top beside the grill. Yay! The piece of concrete under the hibachi was one of the kitchen counters that was replaced. I did not move the others, but I was eager to have this one for my grill. I carried it out and later set it here. It only weighs about 50 pounds. When I lifted it to set it here I felt that old feeling. The one that feels like a cold electric shot, shooting out of my lower spine, down my left leg to the top of my foot. This is another reason I have not gotten much done. I am forced to recuperate. Injury comes like a bolt of lightening, but recovery is slow like the changing seasons. Young people beware! It is a time-out punishment for being stupid. I could have used the hand truck to move it, and lifted it up with a lever and a fulcrum. I was told 35 lbs is the absolute maximum I can lift, and that I should avoid doing that as much as possible.

Slogging forward

The weather is getting cooler and some leaves are beginning to fall. I reckon that this is the middle of the transition from summer to fall. I would like to publish posts that make it seem like I have been busy working away, but that would defeat my purpose. I want a factual account. I want to be able to have an accurate record that I can judge the work of next year with. I know I am subject to nature, so I want to see the natural patterns. But I want to do more. I want, I want...wah, wah, wah! Put a nipple on that bottle for the baby.
A good, clear, detailed plan would make all the difference in what we end up getting done before winter. Because I know if I can draw it, I can do it. Becky and I did get over to a nursery to look at plants. I took pictures of everything that caught her eye. I also took pictures of two areas where they have many different plants stored. I figure I can go back and zoom in on anything that got digitized for a closer look. If you are reading this and you don't already know, you can left-click on the pictures to open and view them more closely. My purpose is to get the landscape roughed in and create spaces for plantings. I want Becky to get a vision of how she sees the landscape develop. She has a naturally good eye for that kind of thing. I really want to produce drawings and a schedule for our landscape plans before we buy anything.
I will have my hands full keeping up with the falling leaves beginning in a week or two. After that, but before winter is the time I want to carry out the plans for the work of this fall. So we need to get ready and save our money.

Officially Fall

Fall has officially arrived and even though I have been preparing work for this time I am still having trouble believing it is here. I have to figure out what I will do with all the leaves that will soon be falling to the ground. I need to rake now. I need to fertilize now.
I gave myself some pain lifting the small piece of concrete into place on the addition of the grill. It has taken some time to get over that. I'm in the mood to procrastinate. Fortunately I have put myself in the position that I must force myself to act. I set goals and sitting on my thumbs means failure. So I have to get my mind and body up to do what needs to be done.

I grilled some chicken yesterday evening. Only the second time I have used the new grill. It does take time to get up a good fire in the grill. With a gas grill you just fire it up and it is ready in minutes. But you have to deal with gas cylinders, unless it is hooked up to the house gas. But all in all I like taking the time to do it right. I have to start early so that we don't eat late. Everyone raved about the chicken. I fixed it two ways: half was marinated in Italian dressing and the other half got bar-b-que sauce at the end. I have had shortcomings before by having the chicken under done. I use a cooking thermometer and at 160 degrees the chicken was underdone. This time I went to 180- 185 degrees and it was perfect.

I did not do a thing in the yard except take the blower and move the leaves off the porch and patio. I sat by the fire thinking about all I could have been doing instead of staring at the charcoal. I've got to get the energy up in my mind to get up and get on with the work I want finished this fall.

Grill Add- on

The top photo is the new grill when I had just finished building it. The brick stack supplying the project is just visible beyond in the extreme left, next to the fence. The bottom photo is with the addition of the piece of old concrete counter top incorporated into it. The brick stack has shrunk noticeably.

The brick was formerly a patio. Before the patio, this brick was part of the front and back porches. It is the same brick the house was constructed of. When I pulled it up from the patio I ended up stacking it in that back corner. Then I took some of that and stacked it up for a pedestal to set the steel tub on and screen soil which is the stack in the foreground. I make believe that this brick is a capital store similar to silver ingots. Just sitting it is worth whatever this type of brick is worth- maybe .50 to .75 each. Employed as a temporary grill, this brick is still worth the .50 or .75 and it is also useful in additional ways.

Experimentation in grill construction imparts insight useful in building something first class. This hands-on exercise stimulates insight into understanding masonry discipline. This construction also enables me to reign as the grill master serving our table. At the same time it still serves the purpose of storage for the brick until I can employ it in some project worth more than a temporary grill. So was this effort worth the exertion? I think so.

This exercise should lead to a greater project on the house which will require all the brick in a permanent construction. Something that will see these brick employed with mortar in the joints and incorporated into the house. That project should add some real and lasting value to the property. At that time I will be done with these bricks and I will be finished with the struggle of employing them most profitably.

Progress is pushing me

I have only fired up my new grill one time since I constructed it. Mostly because most of the weeks of days since have been rainy. I had planned to use a piece of the old counter top in the grill when the time came that the job was done. Now that is done and I have these pieces out back.

I was at a loss as to which piece to use and how to incorporate it into the structure. I had that gnawing anxiety that these pieces may lay like tombstones for dead dreams. But then an idea came to me to use the small piece leaning against the grill as a side counter and a picture of how to do that sprung to mind and I instantly thought, "I will do it that way." Then I remembered that I wanted to use the rectangular piece on the front of the stack as a top for a work bench in the basement. This grill as an intangible idea begun in my mind many years ago has taken on a life of it's own and is now driving me instead of my pursuing it. Now I've got to get up and do some work.

Lemon Tree- crop report

This spring our lemon tree flowered and then set fruit. A month or so later all but about 5 lemons dropped off. That's what it did the year before when we first got it. But mid summer it flowered again and set several more lemons. They survived the falling off time and are now ripening along with the original fruit.
In the bottom photo are visible the more mature lemons on the lower left. The smaller late fruit is to be seen all over the tree. I wonder if the late fruit will reach maturity? And to think that I pooh-poohed Becky's desire for a lemon tree and that it would produce anything in the middle of Arkansas. Last year we harvested a dozen lemons. A neighbor told me the grass I have cultivated in the pot would starve the tree, and that I should pull it out. Well, the grass grows around the lemon trees in Florida, does it not?

West gate improvement final

Here is the completed project. I know that this is substantial construction. It is not a little gravel sprinkled on the ground around the gate. If in a year or two there is call to further improve this gate for some reason not knowable at this time, I know I can build on this. Ultimately, my standard is to be able to walk all the way around the house on some kind of improved surface, while pushing the lawn sweeper, and not be impeded by anything except the gates.
When we first moved in the only things here were the little pad under the air conditioner, two very large holes like from an old, collapsed septic tank, which slowly swallowed large concrete chunks, a large pile of brick, and weeds growing in profusion. I'm really itching to connect this footing with the patio. Hopefully all these separate, small projects will begin to crystallize into a whole, well-fitting landscape that adds value financially and improves our quality of life.

West gate site work

This is the completed excavation. I have this nice, little garden spade that works wonders. It made short work of getting down to business. It is leaning against the grill in the photo. The photo can be viewed by left clicking it. The spade is a Rigid tool. The business end of it is a little thicker than a shovel and the edge is flat and serrated.

Scraping an inch or two of the gravel screenings up was not difficult, either. The material came up in the same condition it was spread- perfect. It has rained for ten days. I now know that this material is best handled damp.
And here I am filling it in. It has to be filled in and raked out, tamped down, dump in some more, rake out, tamp down, more material, rake, tamp...until it is worthy. The only hard thing about this was going back for more. I told myself, "One more load ought to get it." about ten times until I was satisfied I had not cheated.

As I review these photos, I realize that this process would have worked better had I dumped the material in the middle of the excavation and spread it all the way out to the corners, building the whole level up gradually. Instead I dumped the material in piles and then raked off the top to level. Then dumping another pile next to that. While doing the final loads, I kept finding soft spots. Tamping a layer a half inch thick will have more uniform results than tamping material two or three inches thick.

West gate ground work

Today I decided to do the west gate project. I want to excavate under and around the gate. Then I want to back fill the area with the gravel screening material from the patio. My son, Sam came by and I told him that I had planned this a couple of years ago, long before we even had the fence. I believed that one day we would have a fence and that there would be a gate here on the west side of the house. I had excess screening material on purpose for this project. Even so, I was hesitant to do it, because it felt like I was losing something. I think it was greed. It is strange how the mind works. But I had these plans laid for a long, long time, so I forced myself to follow through.
Even though I know all this well, I still took a survey. Here's the gate, and here's where I'm getting the gravel. By my estimate I have at least two inches of material to take off the top.

Gate on the west side

I want to use the gravel screenings I quarry from the patio around this gate. That has been my intention when we first began planning to install the fence. I planned to have excess material for this purpose and others. In this stage of the project I want to get these projects right the first time. I could easily use all the material I take from the patio around the gate and alongside the utility porch in the top photo. But I have this feeling that I want to skimp and "go cheap". I want to hoard as much material as I can for something else. Skimping may bring poor results, if I want to take that chance. Maybe that boils down to just plain laziness. If Sam was here he'd say, "Do I detect a note of timidity?" (That's a line from the movie "Bedknobs and Broomsticks", I think.)

But there is this Dudley Doright side of the human psyche that challenges the hero in us. I should enter into this improvement to do the thing right so that in the future I'm not sorry that I skimped on an important improvement. If it turns out wrong for some unforeseen reason I have the ability to recover the screenings. I just want to do this once and I want it to result in an improvement with far more value than it cost. Is that too much to ask?

Searching for the way

Rain has fallen daily for at least ten days. I am feeling out of touch with my garden project. More rain is forecast the next couple of days. There seems to be no end in sight. I have been searching my photo albums for direction. The photos of the back yard in the morning sun brightened me. I could do some grade work on the patio without getting muddy and soaked, so maybe that's what I should work on now. The conditions for moving the gravel around could not be better.

The photo reveals the grade work I did yesterday in the lower left. There is a swath about four feet wide coming from the gate into the patio and grill area along the fence that I consider close to the final grade. The swath meets the grade of the new grill just as I want. The runoff flows between the grill and fence into the compost area.

To the right of the swath grade the patio area remains about two inches high over almost to the white chairs. Maybe that area is about twenty feet by ten feet, two inches deep... that makes something like thirty three cubic feet of material? I'm not sure about my math. Anyway, I will have a good, little pile of gravel screenings freed up for other purposes. First on my list for this material is the gate on the west side. But that is a study in itself.

Shaping the Landscape

We have had nine consecutive days of rain with more forecast. I managed to mow the yard yesterday. This morning I observed rain runoff patterns etched in the gravel. I discovered that the conditions are excellent to grade and contour the gravel screening patio base. So I set to improving the grade in this area. There is a gentle slope down from the gate to the grill. The area was high to the inside so I worked on establishing a path from the gate to the grill by cutting down the high side and spreading the material to the outside by the fence. This created a flat berm which is slightly sloped away from the fence, sort of down the middle. This will keep the runoff water away from the fence and moving past the grill. The area past the grill is way low. The runoff should flow down there and gradually migrate out of the yard along the back fence. Eventually I hope to have a drain path which will move all the runoff water to funnel out of the yard under the gates in back.

The top photo is my start to re-shape this area from the gate along the fence. The bottom photo is how I left the area. The material was easy to loosen with the spike sandals and easy to rake. Breaking up the material like this, with it wet, keeps the fine material from separating from the coarse. I raked a rough grade and then soaked it with a hose. Then I better shaped the area, according to the water patterns, with the steel rake. I soaked the area again and repeated raking and shaping, then soaking again four or five times until I got as good a slope as I could get for the time being. This process evens and settles the very fine material and leaves a thin layer of coarse material, which is fine gravel, on the top. By then the gravel on top is clean and crunchy.

I had the fence put up a little high along this line. The gravel creates a dam under and along the fence three to eight inches tall with a twenty inch wide base to buttress our yard against the low area in the lot on the other side of the fence. This is the high baseline. From this baseline it appears that I may be able to remove, or reclaim, two inches of material off the top of the patio to form a good overall contour. It was my intent to have extra material on the patio which I could later reclaim for other projects, like a path in the front yard, when the time comes. I had to get all the gravel material I was getting into the back yard before the fence went up.

Rain

Rainy weather the last few days have kept me indoors, except to clean off the back porch and the door mats. The kitchen floor gets tracked with mud when it rains and that is something which I am working to eliminate. The rain is forcing me to work on my plans. The yard will be in need of mowing when it finally dries out.

Give me what the ancients used.

I have begun to level and grade the patio in preparation for construction of the table. It is like a game to me. I aim at something I call "Egyptian Quality", or, "How would the early builders solve this basic problem?" I can only use the tools and materials I have on hand. The primary tool is my imagination.
I took everything off the patio and put on my spike sandals. I walked all over the patio until all resistence to the spikes was gone. Then I began experimenting with different methods which will not strain my back.
First, I tried a flat shovel. Then a flat piece of steel. Then a board. Then a thing I once built to use as a tamper. I tried dragging, pushing and pulling these "tools" back and forth, but none of these things really showed promise. Then I realized I needed an instrument. I needed something better than my eye to find the level grade. So I set up this string line level. That was when I realized this first attempt was an exercise in engineering. The first thing is accurate measurement with a definite grade target. Mastering the level is not as easy as it seems. Yet, wisdom will make this simple.
First I diddled around. Then I got smart and realized I was dumb. But I read somewhere that wisdom is everywhere trying to enlighten hearts with knowledge and understanding. That's what I need for this project. I need some wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.

Love Leads The Way

I understand that a plan of any undertaking has to be definite and plans have to be clear. Actions must be taken. Failure is to be avoided. But, the plan must be fluid. It is easy to confuse definiteness with rigidity. We are making definite progress. We had a general idea and when a step is taken new possibilities arise which were unforeseen. Rigidity causes blindness. Real progress requires definiteness and action and fluidity.
Becky was blown away when she saw the new grill. She was standing on the spot of the former grill, which in this photo, was in the middle of the patio between the table and the swing. She looked around and said, "Put the table right here!" She gestured lengthwise parallel to the house and said, "Put it here, this way, right in the middle." With the grill over there I agree totally. This location is better than under the tree. It feels like a final decision.
This experience inspires me. Our marriage gives me part and gives her part. The two parts work together and make a greater whole. Trust, hope, faith and love are the true ingredients of success. These are things that come alive in activity. Causing these things to come alive are like doing anything worthwhile - it takes work - a labor of love.
So with a slight course adjustment, we sail on, more sure of our way.