Taking shape! He has four levels done in the back now.
What a dead man looks like, as it ties into the wall.
A temporary silt fence (the black fence), required by the county.
Doug tied into the concrete silt block placed here when the house was orignally constructed. He drilled a hole in the concrete and filled it with an epoxy adhesive. He then inserted a stainless steel threaded rod into the epoxy. This wall won't be going anywhere!
Back wall, built up two levels. Doug is definitely doing this the right way. Gravel behind the timbers for six inches, landscape fabric behind that to hold back dirt, drain pipes installed and coming out of the wall, dead men to reinforce and support the wall.
This is what a dead man looks like. I always imagined they'd be a little more pale than this? ;-)
A view of the old (failing) retaining wall, toward the left.
Old wall.
Before laying out the first level of the front (outside) wall. In this picture you can see why I'm calling it the "outside" wall. There is a piece of wood jutting out from the "back wall." That will serve as the first step of a staircase. We will use the staircase to get down to the creek, if a ball goes down into it, etc. The staircase will be supported by an "outside" wall, which will be right up next to the creek. There is one timber laid-out to the far right that you can see will become the first level of the outside wall. The first step will be supported by level #3 or so of the outside wall.
Yuck. Before laying out layer #1 of the front wall and installing it.
Old retaining wall.
I guess it did serve a purpose since 1984. It wasn't constructed very well, so I can only imagine how long Doug's wall will last!
Our super nice neighbor Matthew Celender bought a pair of waterproof boots and told Doug he would help out this past Saturday. Thanks Matthew! And thanks to Kate for watching Scarlett while Matthew helped! How funny...it looks like the required uniform for this job is a white t-shirt and ripped jeans. Not exactly fun work to do, in the mud constantly!
I wonder if they made mudpies when they were little? ;-)
If not, they're certainly making up for lost time!
If not, they're certainly making up for lost time!
Laying out the front (outside) wall. This wall will tie into the steps. Doug couldn't go any higher on finishing the wall toward the back, as this front (outside) wall will be tying into the steps. The steps will serve as dead-men (perpendicular wall support that will pull the wall back from it's edge) back into the dirt.
Eventually all of the greenery (aka weeds) toward the left won't be there, after the digging occurs to install the dead-men.
Old timbers that comprised the old (and not very useful) retaining wall. Some of the dead men were only 22 inches long! Not really doing much. But, ever the resourceful guy, Doug will be cutting some of the old, longer timbers down to reuse as dead-men.
Without the retaining wall there, you can see how steep it really is!
Much nicer already! This is row #1 installed, entire wall. We tried to make the front wall parallel with the back wall, with exception to the angled portion.
You can imagine what it might look like, when the wall is built up nine levels.
While the boys were working on the retaining wall, I wanted to take Ava and Liam somewhere to occupy them. We opted to go to see Mr. Popper's Penguins at the dollar theater. I asked Kate, Matthew's wife, if she wanted to go and bring Scarlett. It was Scarlett's first movie. She did really well! Although she was scared of the penguins in the movie, after a seriously close-up shot of a penguin's mouth...If I were her I would've been scared, too...I think you could see down the penguin's throat, it was that close! We had fun with them, though. She sat really well, too!
Peace, love and retaining LOTS of water,
Shelly, Doug, Ava and Liam
