Heavy work and rain/rest days

you can see the dry stone wall going in just past the wheelbarrow

Its been a while since I've posted and I'm going to make more of an effort to update this blog more often. Today it is rainy, a good opportunity to rest and get some indoor work done. Lately I've been focused on building the piers for the terrace and south side shade structure. The walls will be dry stone, mostly urbanite, the fill will be clay from the under-house excavation, the posts to go on the piers will be black locust in the round. All quite sustainable. Unfortunately the piers are not so. Quickcrete pads poured 8 to 10 inches into the clay with cinder block structure filled with quickcrete and rebar, with a wire mesh reinforced quickcrete pad on top to bring em up to grade. Lots of lifting 80 pound bags followed by hand mixing and shovel filling leaves my back crying out for a rest. Add to that, my recent discoveries of tons, literally, of free firewood, all hand loaded as logs into my ageing Camry wagon and unloaded and stacked back at home, has left me grateful for this cool wet day for resting.

the tallest pier with the form for the pad