VRHrider: Sandy, sweaty and sore...but satisfied!

Odette called this morning and said that she was going to pack up Sara and head down for the day. She & I both love doing home projects, so I took advantage of the extra pair of hands and the company, and decided to rebuild one of the retaining walls on my property. The builder had originally used small, round landscaping stones. Brilliant guy...

Now, round on round isn't stable to begin with, then add sand and a bunch of ground critters digging tunnels through the sand, between the stones, and pretty soon you have a washed out retaining wall and a hill of sand migrating down your property...so we decided to rip it out and do it right. Notice how Genius Builder Guy put the LITTLE rocks on the bottom, and the BIG rocks in the middle & top...I'm not an engineer, but doesn't that seem a little STUPID? Doesn't he watch HGTV? That's a total Tool Time retaining wall...

I headed out to Home Depot and bought the retaining wall blocks. One of the workers was kind enough to cut a few for me so that we could stagger the wall properly.

When I got back with the blocks, Odie and I got started by removing the remaining landscaping rocks, and digging out and leveling the sand. We started laying the first layer of blocks, and quickly figured out how to get the base level. You can see the first layers with the washed-out hill behind it. At one time the ground level was even with the stacked stone to the right--that's how much has eroded since the original wall was built.

Odie's biceps are going to look like Popeye's! Each block weighs 53 lbs--that's HALF of what I weigh!

The wind was howling, and blew sand into our mouths and eyes as we dug. By the end, we were tired and windblown, with sand in every orifice possible! But the wall was almost finished, with only the cap to go! We were able to complete the wall in about 2 1/2 hours!