Today was to be the day I put in on the cement block wall. I wanted to try and get it in before (if we got them) the rains came for the weekend.
I did get up and out before 7 on my walk… got in my 3+ miles and then had my usual (wonderful) breakfast of protein bar and Cran-Grape juice. I know it doesn’t sound like much but it usually is more than enough for the morning and gets me started ok… If I eat big breakfasts I am full all day so having a short one doesn’t tend to slow me down or make me feel over full…
I was out getting the tools ready and mixing the mortar before 9AM… I don’t work fast and at this , I am not real good but I got it put in place, reasonably level and straight, and looks ok… my real saving grace is that much of it will be filled back with dirt anyway… I will still need to build the screen box for the top few inches , but I haven’t gotten the lumber for that yet…
Here is the start to make sure how many of which blocks fit where… spacing things out as best I can to I don’t have to make too many cuts…
In place and reasonably straight and level..
The finished block wall and I had mortar left so put up most of the stones on the stair end… ran out of mortar just before I was done? so will have to mix up a bit more next week and finish that corner. When the blocks are set good will drill holes and attach the screen to the top blocks so I can put some stones on the rest of this… up to the top and then build up the screen that will fit in the top… not sure but probably will try to make it from cedar? so it won’t rot out too quick? This should stop the water from running back in under the landing and then out in the flower bed and look a bit nicer when done. Also have to get the attachment change for the down spout and get it put on as well… that will run that water out past the steps. I got all this done before noon but was pretty wore down so didn’t do much this afternoon… the Pest sprayer showed up at about 2:30 and we got our monthly coating to keep the bugs, spiders, etc. moved back from the house and had him put down some more snake out stuff… I think it is not much more than granulated mothballs… but the make up has Cedar Oil in it… maybe the neighbors shouldn’t have cut out all the cedars as they might just be a snake repellant?
This morning before I got started I had visitors in the yard…
They do not seem to have any problems of coming right up to the house… but they watch pretty close and if anyone of us comes out they move back to the pond pretty quick… They can have all the June bugs they can pick up… but I don’t need so much of their left over things to step in? maybe the coming rain will soak them in?
This evening we went to Bad Brads for dinner… had a gift certificate from the CREC annual meeting that we used up so dinner was about $7 bucks for two… It was a bit weird… I ordered the pig plate… supposed to be a bit of pulled pork, sausage, and rib… I got a plate of ribs and not the other? but checked and price is the same so that is ok… Sherrie wanted the stuffed backed potatoes… they ran out of Backed Potatoes so she got the Dirty Fries? French Fries covered with chopped brisket… out ticket still said Pig Plate and Stuffed baked… but that is not what either of us got?
This after noon in between the spraying and a little more antenna work I tried a little radio… boy the bands were dead today… I had a very brief opening on 10 meter but didn’t make any contacts and then it was gone? This evening it was even worse… quiet on most of the bands with very limited activity… but it may be that it is a big holiday weekend and a lot of kids getting out of school…
That did it up for this day… and as I came in from the shop… it was dripping… not hard but wetter than it had been in months? hope it keeps it up for …. a day or so?
WD0AJG