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.