SATURDAY, JUNE 24, 2017
THE WALL IS FINISHED.
The rock wall, once envisioned, became an ever-present task. I couldn’t focus on anything else in the yard because I wanted that wall. We’ve had the middle section for about 10 years, but in the last year, I realized the wall needed to be extended on both the left and the right. When spring arrived and there was enough daylight left at the end of the day, this wall was my priority.
Don liked the idea of the rock wall but wasn’t nearly invested in its creation as I was, so I began. I leveled the ground, poured the foundation, built the cement wall and then stacked the rocks that I had collected. Yes, I’m feeling a little bit like the Little Red Hen.
Definitely still some landscaping and cleaning up to be done, but this is finished. Until another moment of insight!
This looks really good. How do you know about building these things and doing repairs? I don’t remember your parents being handy like this. Fantastic job. Can’t wait to see it.
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Don knows how to do just about everything. I’m always so surprised. He says he doesn’t, but he certainly knows enough to get started and then he knows which of his friends to ask. Between the Internet and Don, we can figure it out. He knew to build foundation, how to level it, make the frame to pour the concrete for the foundation. We’d done it for the first wall, but I, of course, had forgotten. So he reminded me and I just did it.
When we were building the chicken run, he kept saying “3,4,5” rule. I finally was like “what the hell are you talking about?” It’s some right triangle rule of a 3′ line intersecting with a 4′ line. When the distance between the two outer points is 5′ you have a square corner. In essence, he knew to make use of the Pythagorean Theorem. Who knew that would ever be useful!
Dad could be handy. He built my child-size dollhouse and the furniture. But I think he didn’t like to do that sort of stuff. He was very good at all those crafts Mom put him up to. He painted intricate detail with food coloring on hundreds of iced sugar cookies for Christmas, made and painted a “cigar box” type purse for me and of course those candy houses. I think I got the “I can do it” from him, but I prefer power tools to tiny paint brushes.
BTW, the chickens are tired of being in mud.. It has been a wet spring and summer, so we are going to put a pitched tin roof over the entire run. Can’t wait to see what Don knows about that!!!!
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