I started work early, weeding out the ice plant on the slope below the retaining wall at the downward slope of the back lawn.
Mike came up early to pour cement to reset the release on the back gate. He says he is back to his his cement mixing days when his dad had a cement mixer on the farm. Resetting that release will allow both sides of the gate to be open, a precondition to bringing the tractor through with a frontload or two or three of topsoil for the new bed at the far end of the back lawn. I will relay the pavers leading to the back gate when cement sets, expected in about 24 hours. The pavers will need eventually need to be entirely removed and relaid in that area with a gravel base, but that sounds like a great project for the fall.
I spent the afternoon pulling grass away from a spigot in the middle of the field and the utility meter and trimming along the corporation yard fence. Why a spigot was placed in the middle of the field is a mystery, only rediscovered when Mike extended the mowing in front of the house.
Late afternoon I leveled the stones and brick on which the retaining wall will sit, and set one concrete barrier as a test. My theory is that the stone and brick base will prevent subsidence into the ground during the rainy season, and the concrete barriers will hold in the base. I have many theories.
A Year at the Snake 