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.