New Yard

Mmmm, looking down the post as I type this the 3rd and 4th picture are on their sides. Maybe it'll sort itself out but this is the new version of blogger and we have not fully sussed out its idiosyncrasies. You may have to 'steer' your laptop into portrait mode or just make do with them. Ah well.

We have had our yard "done". One bloke (Dushty-Sean the Mini Digger driver), 20 tonne of this mixed-sized aggregate 804 gravel with bits from small to 'dusht' in it and about half a day.

Good Man Sean! First he had to level the ground where Dad and Sparks had demolished the inner wall of what is not the Utility Room, and left some BIG bits of rubble all over the place. Mainly this involved thumping the digger bucket down on top of the concrete lumps till they collapsed in an explosion of dust. Then he moved obvious lumps to fill obvious dips and finally swept the 20 tonne (2 decent sized tractor/trailer loads) of 804 across the lot to "blind" it smooth.

He deliberately kept back a bit of the 'dusht' to recover the front drive. Normal 804 is usually used where it will be buried under concrete or a smoother finishing 'stuff' but our front drive, just outside the front door had a covering of the stuff we'd used on the floors inside, just left where the piles were tipped. The nieces and nephews on a visit up in hot weather were running around barefoot in cozzies, having a water-fight and found they couldn't walk on this bit because of the sharp stones underfoot. Not any more - the 804 "dusht" is as soft as beach sand under foot.

 With the yard now finished and looking like some kind of grey lunar surface, Mum and Dad could think about "gardening" it and some kind of planting, mainly into pots, but also, they decided, with a few more hardy things planted straight into the old cattle-yard clay (obviously with a hole scraped into the 804 so the roots might actually see the soil!)
In addition, some of the stones we have saved, and some of the big bits originally 'chucked' over the wall by 804-Pete when he first cleared away the boggy turf, we decided might be quite attractive used back in the garden. We were thinking just of groups or small rings around plants almost as 'mulch' but one of these was so huge Dad couldn't lift it. Mum and Dad dragged it into the yard on a 1-tonne builder bag and Mum decided it needed to be stood on end like a mini henge. We all think it looks rather good there!

 Coco has pee'd up it many times. Incidentally, "Coco" is changing his name by Deedpoll. Mum and Dad never really loved the name Coco for a dog, and generally it got shortened to Cokes or Cokey-Doke, both of which have rather too many druggy overtones. Hence our little Yorkie friend will from now on be known as Trigger or Trig, short for 'Trigonometry'. I offer no more explanation than that. Ask Mum.

Deefs