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Hi folks. I decided today to make a start towards replacing the crumbling wall surrounding a part of our garden. I thought it would maybe be fun to do a thread to document this, so here we are. I have no idea how long this going to take me or how the finished wall is going to look, as is normally my way, I'll sort of work it out as I go along. I suspect I'll often be sidetracked along the way, as has already happened today. I've been collecting stones for a while now and I don't intend to replace the wall with bricks. Instead I'm going to use stones which are not all of the same type of stone, but that's what I have, so that's what I'll use. The first few photos show the condition the current wall. The first photo is the end of the wall nearest my woodshed and as you can see, it's not looking great.
The wall is only a small one but has been here for many years and is now crumbling badly and really insecure and wobbly at bits. This photo shows the wall behind some of the stones I've collected.
A view of the wall with the large stones moved away from it.
And a more detailed view of the extent of the damage.
As we all love the birds, I'll see if I can photograph some of them along the way, like these Starlings on my neighbour's TV aerial.
I also decided to stuff some straw into a suet ball feeder and hang it in the holly bush in case the birds might like to use some of it as nesting material.
I've decided that probably the best way to go about this is to lay out all the stones that I have and hopefully this should maybe help me to select the stones easier as the build gets under way. The next photo is of the stones that were piled along the edge of the old wall. I've tried to lay them out in a sort of organised way, (to me anyway).
At around this point, Mrs A called down to see if I fancied going to the garden centre with her for a cup of tea. This sounded great to me, so off we went. As is the way of things, we ended up having a light lunch and returned with a new adapter for the garden hose, a 12.5kg bag of peanuts and two new peanut feeders, one of which is shown here. We liked the look of these feeders because the wire mesh goes all the way around the bottom an back up the other side which should help to prevent the peanuts at the bottom from becoming damp, although the Sparrows around here take great pride in preventing this from happening by scoffing as many peanuts as they can, as often as they can.!!
When I got back down the garden to start again, I found that the supervisor had arrived and was carrying out a detailed assessment of the site. This is Tee Tee, one of my three cats. She likes to ‘help’.!!
Assessing and helping can be very tiring however, so it wasn't long before mental and physical exhaustion got the better of her.!!
Mrs A called down the garden again, reminding me that she'd promised the elderly lady next door that I'd dig out a few very small trees that had taken root close to her front door. Also I was to dig out some Peony Roses from the same area as well. I actually broke the first garden fork that I used, but think I may be able to repair it with a small exhaust clamp. I got another fork from the shed, which we actually found lying in the middle of the road when we were out in the car one day.!!(the fork, not the shed).!! I've actually found loads of things lying in the road now that I come to think about It.!! The list includes a pair of safety goggles, one of those hard hats with the ear protectors fitted to it, a small digital camera, three battery powered inspection lamps (all at different times and in different locations) and my most recent find was one of those clamp things that mountaineers use to help them when they're climbing up a rope,.. you know the type of thing? You attach a bit of rope with a loop on it to put your foot in, and as you take the weight off your foot , the clamp thing is slid up the rope and then grips the rope again as you put your weight back on the loop.!! Quite ingenious actually... In actual fact, it’s in the drawer downstairs, I’ll go get it and take a photo of it to show you… back in a ‘tic.......... Here it is..... Thanks for waiting.!!
Never be afraid to stop and pick things up (safely of course), you never know what you'll find. I actually doubled back to get the safety goggles.!! Anyway... I dug up the small trees and Peony Roses but I hate to see things go to waste, especially as they're living things, so the small trees are now planted in my garden and Mrs A found a place for the Peony Roses. I've no idea what kind of trees they are but here's a photo of one of them in it's new home, half way down the garden. I put it in the middle of some other plants that Mrs A has got (with her permission of course).
I am in all honesty trying to get back to the wall but the way things went today I was all over the place. Mrs A once again called me to see if I wanted to see a Bee that was on the ground at the front of the house. This is a photo I took before we moved it to a safer location in the garden amongst the plants. It was moving very slowly on the ground.
Whilst I was down on the ground I took a few snaps of a couple of the plants that are out at the front of the house. The first one as I'm sure you'll know is a Heather but I've no idea what the second one is. I'm not great when it comes to idenyifying plants.
Another bit of crumbling wall at the front of the house. I'll have to sort this at some point too.!!
On the way back round to get on with sorting out the stones I thought I take a few pics to show you some other stuff. It may surprise you, but I actually found these tubs (I have two of them) in the field at the back of my house. They were much taller than they are now and someone had made then into garden seats, obviously didn't want them any more and threw them into the field. There is a pile of wood in the corner of the field that the farmer doesn't bother about, so long as it's only wood or garden waste. Every now and then he sets fire to it. It’s really handy actually as all of our trimmings and stuff can go out there without the need for us to bag them up and take them to the council's waste centre. I cut the top off the seats, painted them up, and Mrs A planted some sort of butterfly friendly plants into them.
I also found this small tree lying in the field, minus a pot. I rescued this as well and put it in a pot over the winter. I planted it today in another bit of the garden but have really no idea what it is.
A view looking down the garden from the other side of the fence from the barrel planter. I built the wee hand cart thing myself out of some wood that I had lying around. Mrs A puts flowers in it in the summer and it looks really nice. The wheels were bit of a nightmare to build and I tried to persuade Mrs A that a broken cart with only one wheel would be nice, but she was having none of it. I had to build the second wheel.!! It's full mostly of the soil you get free from the council recycling centre once a year, mixed with some garden centre compost as well. The box behind the cart to the left which looks like an oversized Rabbit Hutch is Harry's house(one of my other cat's). I actually built it for Tee Tee when we moved here but she looked upon it with spectacular indifference. When Harry adopted us he moved in without a second thought. He has a comfy bed in the top half where it is nice and dry.
Heading back to continue with the wall, I took a photo of some House Sparrows leaving the tree. I'm not sure what type of tree it is but I think it may be a type of ornamental pear willow....I think. It does bear very small, hard, pear shaped fruits every year.
It's a great tree for the birds. It's close to the feeding area and the Starling and Sparrows love it. Another photo of House Sparrow’s in the tree, and arriving at the tree.
A quick stop over for a refreshing drink of Lager Shandy.
An artistic look through the stones.
Since I'm at the bottom of the garden I'd be just as well to show you a view out over the fields at the back. The farmer had been spreading....stuff...on the field the other day but you tend to get used to it...if you know what I mean.!! He puts cattle in here later on in the year so maybe expect a post about cows at some point.
This is my chimney thing that we sit round on the summer nights, and as you can see, it hasn't has the best of winters this year. Another job to add to the list.
I have plans to use this barrel as a Water Butt, but I need to put guttering up on the shed at some time and use the run off to fill the Butt. Yet another one for the ever lengthening list of things to be done.
Almost back to the stones again, but first a quick photo of one of those insect home things that we have in our Holly Bush.
I do have another pile of stones which I now got round to bringing out and organising, but before I show you a photo of all the stones together, I thought I'd introduce you to Harry. Some of you may remember him from an earlier thread, but if you missed that, here he is. He's quite old we think, and he's also a bit deaf, especially with lower frequencies. He has only recently taken to coming into the house for a wee while in the evening, before wanting back out again. He lives outside most of the time. Tee Tee hates Harry and they constantly go through a ridiculous charade where Tee Tee does what we call 'The Slow Walk'. She postures herself and passes by Harry's box with exaggerated slowness, looking at absolutely everything around her..Except Harry.!! He flattens himself to the base of his box during this and watches her intently. Totally ridiculous behaviour from both of them. Occasionally though, it does come to blows, but happily not as often as it used to. This is Harry in the bottom part of his box, pretending he doesn't know that Tee Tee is watching him from further down the garden.
This is Tee Tee, watching Harry from further down the garden, no doubt planning a 'Slow Walk' up past him.(note the condition of the wall behind her).
A pair of Goldfinch paid a brief visit, this being one of them.
And finally, these are all the stones that I have for the wall.
I think there are enough stones here to do the job and if I need smaller ones I can maybe use the sledge hammer to break up some of the more awkward shaped ones. I'm not sure yet if I'm going to do this in small steps (mixing the cement by hand) or if I'll maybe get hold of a small cement mixer and try to do it in one go if I can get a good day for it. It’s taken ages to put this post together and I do realise that it did veer off course at bits, but I hope you’ve enjoyed it and I’ll update this maybe next weekend if any further progress is made.
Paul
My bird photos HERE
Thanks Higgy. The plan is to get the cement and sand in the next few days and make a start at the weekend. I have a large gazebo thing that can be used if it's raining and also a large tarpaulin for covering the wall until the mortar sets. I've cancelled the plans for the cement mixer and will mix up in the wheelbarrow as advised. I think I may start at the front corner of the wall where it slopes up towards the rear and then work my way back round towards the woodshed. We are going out for dinner on Friday evening to celebrate my niece's 21st birthday but I've volunteered to drive so as to be nice and 'fresh' in the morning. In reference to shouting and swearing, I don't actually know any naughty words but I have been known to quietly exclaim the word "Gosh" in the event of painful injuries.!!
LOL
Glad you've got a gazebo as the forecast isn't too good on Saturday for around here!!
Hi folks. It's Saturday evening now and I spent a good many hours down in the garden today for what looks to be very little progress on the wall. I have to admit to getting a bit sidetracked again with taking photos of the birds, and I did come across some extra stuff that needed to be done as well. The day didn't start of too well because when I was out feeding the birds at around 6:30am I noticed that Harry had left me a gift right next to the part of the wall that I was going to be working on. This particular gift was a decent sized pile of cat vomit which I have to admit to finding great difficulty in dealing with, the risk always being that I could too easily add to it myself.!! Mrs A usually deals with this type of thing so I went back up to the house where she was still in bed and asked her if she could be so kind as to get up and clear the offending pile away.!! Heading back towards the door to clean it up myself, I noticed that the Corvids had arrived for their morning feed and I was delighted to see that they were happily tucking into Harry's gift. At this point Harry appeared and seemingly forgetting what he'd done, he wandered over to the feast to see what was going on. Obviously upset that the Rooks were having more than they should (the birds all having left by this point) he tucked in himself.!! If you have cats you'll know that this is normal. By the time I got back down the garden with my jumper pulled up to just below my eyes, I only needed to attack the remainder with a stiff brush.!! I have a pair of waterproof overalls that I usually wear when doing messy jobs so I dug them out of the shed where they live. The last time I’d worn them was when I’d been collecting some of the stones for the wall and they were still covered in dried-in mud on the front. I laid them out on the ground and gave them a going over with a stiff brush..(not the same one as I used on the remainder of the vomit).
My gardening overalls.
The plan was to start at one corner of the wall and slope the wall up towards the desired height where it would then continue round to the other end. I've decided to do this a bit at a time because as it's a retaining wall, I don't want the soil behind it collapsing outwards if I take too much of the wall away at one time. A few pictures of the wall before I get started. You'll maybe notice that there was a slight frost this morning.
And another view.
A few tools were assembled to start off with.
I started off by removing part of the wall which actually goes down below the level of the paving slabs but still sits on another layer of bricks that are even further down and running in the opposite direction. A decent base for the wall but still six or seven inches deep so I decided to add an extra layer of concrete just for good measure.
Part of the wall removed.
Tee Tee arrived for an inspection of the works so I took a photo of her when she was here.
The next photo shows part of the wall taken away and the hole ready for a layer of concrete. It doesn't look like much but a pick axe was needed to get most of it out. The lone brick that you see in the hole was really solid and was running under the slabs a bit so I just left it where it was.
At this particular part of the wall there were two slabs that were sunk down a bit which causes water to pool here. I thought it just as well to sort this out when I was here. A quick rummage in the shed produced three quarters of a bag of paving sand so an hour or so was spent leveling the two slabs again. I also came across half a bag of ready mixed concrete but to be on the safe side I nipped out and got an extra bag of cement and two cheap bags of 20mm gravel. I had been out through the week and supplied myself with sharp sand, cement and finer sand for mortar.
Some various bags of sand, the cement being in the shed where it's dry.
I mixed up the ready mixed concrete and added some sand, gravel and a bit more cement to it. I sread it out in the hole and went about readying a serlection of stones to try in a few hours when the concrete had went off a bit. A photo of the concrete in the hole.
I had a few hours to myself now so after grabbing a snack I tried for some photos of the birds.
A lone Jackdaw passes over.
There were actually loads of Jackdaws going about today but they always appear from nowhere and can be difficult to capture at times. The Rooks are even harder because as soon as they see you the veer off to the side and away. Anyway, next up is a female Chaffinch up in one of the trees.
A blue tit up on his tip-toes. He had obviously spotted something but I've no idea what it was.
When I was a school we used to get dancing lessons for all the Scottish dances and there was always someone who ended up facing the wrong way. This shot of these Sparrows reminded me of that.!!
The neighbours TV aerial is usually a good area for a shot of something or other. A Jackdaw this time.
And a few of his partners in crime, heading in the other direction.!!
Back to doing a bit more to the wall now. I've had this string line for years now and once again it sees the light of day.
I also cleared about three barrow loads of red chips away from the rest of the wall in preparation for when I get to those bits.
I've used the string line to give me a guide as to the upward slope towards full height.
By this time the concrete was well on its way but I thought I'd give it a bit more time yet. I do know that it should really be left at least overnight to set but it is only a small wall and at the rate I'm going at it will be months before the wall is finished. A few more photos of the birds to keep us amused in the meantime. My next door neighbour has been growing a Sparrow Bush and a few more days of sunshine should see these beauties ready for picking.!!
A rogue Starling wondering whether it's worth his while getting involved in the chaos below.
The chaos below.!!
A gorgeous male Blackbird was in and out of the garden all day today.
Harry has been wandering up and down all day. He isn't actually lurking in the undergrowth here although sometimes he does exactly that.!! When I built the fence down the side of the garden I cut about four inches off the bottom of three of the slats to give the cats and the Hedgehogs easy access between the gardens. I actually watched a fox going through one of the holes one time. I wouldn't have believed it possible if I hadn't seen It.!! Getting back to Harry, he's just come through one of the holes and he seems to be looking up the garden at something.!!
I think he's looking at Ceilidh (Kaylie) who is the final one of our three cats. Ceilidh is a house cat and the photo is through the glass on the back door. I told you about Tee Tee being a bit of a thug but she is only an apprentice compared to Ceilidh. Ceilidh is like a Jedi Master in the art of thuggery. One of my sisters-in-law is terrified to come into the house and I have a twelve year old nephew who won't even get out of the car when he's here.!! He won't talk about what happened so we're not really sure ourselves.!! She is a friendly cat most of the time and she'll let you rub her with almost any object, from a mobile phone to a dinner plate, but she's not always too keen if you use your hand. She's fine with Mrs A and me though. This is Ceilidh. Cute or what.!!
Finally back to the wall though. I only managed to get three big stones in today but as you've seen it's taken a bit of preparation to get to this point. I think I'm just going to leave the top of the wall as near as I can get width-wise without going to the bother of trying to get topping stones or anything of the sort. I quite like the idea of it being a bit random if you know what I mean. This could change however but that is the plan so far. A few photos of the wall at the end of today.
Like I said at the start of this update, it doesn't look like much but I have to say that it's not as easy as you might imagine. I'm going to leave the pointing until the end as was suggested. I suspect that you may be wondering if I had a Shandy today but wonder no more. I actually had two, this second one being consumed at the end of the day with my feet up in the greenhouse.
Finally I've covered the wall with a tarpaulin in case it rains tonight but it's not forecast to.
Once again I've strayed a bit from the subject but if you have read it all, thank you. I'm back out there tomorrow again but it's taken me two and a half hours to upload the photos tonight so I don't think I be updating again tomorrow. I'll probably wait until next weekend instead. Hope you enjoyed.
Another great account of your herculean task PA & could even see about two thirds of your pics!! Whilst you were beavering away outside I was chained to the house, the morning being spent sorting out the needs of my two great nephews (who had stayed overnight)! Sent them home, had a quick Zizz to refresh & spent rest of day undertaking computer restore to factory settings as had been overwhelmed by an adware virus which ground everything to a halt ... a fairly simple but very long winded process as had then to reinstall all kinds of software but it seems a success & am now back online!! Will be able to post Kestrel updates but whether anyone will be able to see them is debatable!!
Look forward to more of your updates!
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
Thanks Wendy. Good to hear that you've got the PC sorted out. I'm lucky that I have a good friend who sorts that kind of thing out for me. I do look forward to popping in now and then for regular fixes of all things Kestrel. I hope that the photo issue is sorted out as there are a few that I can't see either, even though it was me that posted them.
That's a great start Paul, the first stone is always the hardest to lay. Brilliant commentary & I saw ALL the piccies, amazing. Good luck today & keep up the good work (& the shandy too).
Best wishes
Hazel in Southwest France
Thanks Hazel. I'm off now to borrow a stihl saw from my brother. Not sure if it'll be needed on the wall but there is a bit of edging slab that needs to be cut to finish off the bottom edge of the big lawn. I'll maybe wait ''til a bit later though before firing it up, they are rather loud as I'm sure you know.
Another great update Paul and enjoyable read :) fabulous set of photos and good to see the project progressing along nicely and it looked like some fair weather too. Got to say I loved the Sparrow photos and if you see a Sparrow bush or tree in the garden centre let me know 'cos I want one LOL !!
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Regards, Hazel
Paul as usual another good story. Yes having cats I know exactly where you are coming from. I did laugh when you went to ask Mrs A to help and she was still in bed!! Did you really think she would get out her cosy bed to clean up the mess!! The wall is started now, so look forward to the progress. Love you 3rd cat "Kaylie" she looks very pretty.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Well done mate, You've now made a start but I'm getting worried about all these pictures of beer... I suppose that at least you have a plumb-line so that should keep you going in a straight line if you get too intoxicated!!
Best
Higgy