*
Clearing access to the site and the platform area itself has been ongoing. I used planks as skis and the chain hoist to drag the massive GEM away
from the aggregate delivery route. Chain hoists aren't really intended
to be used horizontally because the chain loops tangle so easily without
the aid of gravity. The advantage of using the hoist was the slow
movement without any rocking. The mounting is very top heavy on its
relatively light, slotted angle stand. So I attached cords to the very
bottom of the legs for the repeated pulls. First I laid out a
lightweight tarpaulin to stop the chains and hoist getting too muddied
by the lawn.The 10m³ sand and gravel mix has arrived. The huge, round pile was 6' tall and two full drives wide. That was before I removed about 30 full wheelbarrows in the first hour. The gravel is remarkably self compacting. Simply walking on the roughly tipped ramp I made was enough to make it firm enough to roll the wheelbarrow down over it.
I'm not sure I can, or should, keep up the barrowing for very much longer today. I just needed to make a path to get past the heap. Fortunately we remembered to put the car outside the heap in case of emergencies. Or rather my wife did.
Next day, the wheel-barrowing of gravel continued. After a couple of hours more work before lunch the area is covered with gravel to a good depth over about a third. We discovered an easier way of filling wheelbarrows by simply leaning them against the heap and raking. My wife did the raking while I trundled back and forth with two wheelbarrows. She filled one while I walked with the other.
Assuming we've spent about four solid hours, so far, the whole job shouldn't take more than 12 hours in total. The exercise is probably doing us good if we don't overdo it. The trick is not to overfill the barrows. So that it never becomes a test of stamina before the barrow can be easily tipped.
Another hour after lunch and the gravel is at least 18" deep over 3/4 of the area to be covered. Say about 9 square meters/yards so far. I am still aiming for a gentle downward slope or ramp until I reach the far end. Just to make the full barrows roll more easily on their solid, puncture-proof tyres. Not bad work for a couple of 70-year-olds. It all looks an awful mess at the moment but the dry stone retaining wall on the left will eventually disappear. My photography does not capture the scale very well.
Sunday, and two more hours of shoveling and toi-ng and fro-ing with gravel. We are making rapid visual progress but may be underestimating the work left. It will take a lot more gravel to raise the entire surface to match the rest of the parking area. The observatory/platform site seems to shrink as the gravel surface rises. The vast, initial mound of gravel outside the gate is also shrinking rapidly.
The distance to the far end of the site from the pile is about 40 yards. The site is about 4m wide x 5 meters long. My wife keeps suggesting I bury the concrete [pier base] pipe to save extra excavation work through the thickness of gravel later on. With no contractor's machine to worry about now I suppose I could do the digging and burying at any time.The problem is the hard work involved in digging down in the root filled soil beneath the gravel. It is easier to ignore the job and keep on trundling barrows back and forth.
Monday: Another hour and half of gravel trundling between showers in a roaring gale. The gravel level at the far end of the site is getting closer to finished. The middle of the site is being reserved for burial of the big, concrete, pier pipe. A path is being left between the two buildings for maintenance and access. Foreground right is the offending birch stump. I can't start the chainsaw to get rid of it!
Digging the hole for the pipe took three back breaking hours! There were several thick tree roots to chop but no rocks. Coming on top of a couple of hours of gravel moving I am now aching all over. The bottom 20cm / 8" was in heavy, wet clay.
Don't follow my example and dig through a thick layer of sand & gravel first! I was expecting a contractor with a mini-loader to move the sand but it never happened. Had I known beforehand I would have dug the hole in the soil first.
I was just going to try dropping the pipe in the hole when my measuring stick proved to be a bit too tight towards the bottom. It might have gone in by sheer force of weight but it just wasn't worth the risk of it getting stuck half way. I'll have to trim the edges back some more tomorrow. Perhaps make it a little oval to allow it to tip more easily before it becomes upright. I'll have some planks on the opposite side for the pipe's bottom lip to slide down without it digging into the soil and getting stuck at an angle. I have some lengths of heavy pipe to use as levers. The chain hoist would probably cope with the lift but I'm hoping to avoid using it. I'll throw some gravel into the bottom of the hole first for the pipe's lower edge to rest on.
Next day, the wheel-barrowing of gravel continued. After a couple of hours more work before lunch the area is covered with gravel to a good depth over about a third. We discovered an easier way of filling wheelbarrows by simply leaning them against the heap and raking. My wife did the raking while I trundled back and forth with two wheelbarrows. She filled one while I walked with the other.Assuming we've spent about four solid hours, so far, the whole job shouldn't take more than 12 hours in total. The exercise is probably doing us good if we don't overdo it. The trick is not to overfill the barrows. So that it never becomes a test of stamina before the barrow can be easily tipped.
Another hour after lunch and the gravel is at least 18" deep over 3/4 of the area to be covered. Say about 9 square meters/yards so far. I am still aiming for a gentle downward slope or ramp until I reach the far end. Just to make the full barrows roll more easily on their solid, puncture-proof tyres. Not bad work for a couple of 70-year-olds. It all looks an awful mess at the moment but the dry stone retaining wall on the left will eventually disappear. My photography does not capture the scale very well.
Sunday, and two more hours of shoveling and toi-ng and fro-ing with gravel. We are making rapid visual progress but may be underestimating the work left. It will take a lot more gravel to raise the entire surface to match the rest of the parking area. The observatory/platform site seems to shrink as the gravel surface rises. The vast, initial mound of gravel outside the gate is also shrinking rapidly.
The distance to the far end of the site from the pile is about 40 yards. The site is about 4m wide x 5 meters long. My wife keeps suggesting I bury the concrete [pier base] pipe to save extra excavation work through the thickness of gravel later on. With no contractor's machine to worry about now I suppose I could do the digging and burying at any time.The problem is the hard work involved in digging down in the root filled soil beneath the gravel. It is easier to ignore the job and keep on trundling barrows back and forth.Monday: Another hour and half of gravel trundling between showers in a roaring gale. The gravel level at the far end of the site is getting closer to finished. The middle of the site is being reserved for burial of the big, concrete, pier pipe. A path is being left between the two buildings for maintenance and access. Foreground right is the offending birch stump. I can't start the chainsaw to get rid of it!
Don't follow my example and dig through a thick layer of sand & gravel first! I was expecting a contractor with a mini-loader to move the sand but it never happened. Had I known beforehand I would have dug the hole in the soil first.
I was just going to try dropping the pipe in the hole when my measuring stick proved to be a bit too tight towards the bottom. It might have gone in by sheer force of weight but it just wasn't worth the risk of it getting stuck half way. I'll have to trim the edges back some more tomorrow. Perhaps make it a little oval to allow it to tip more easily before it becomes upright. I'll have some planks on the opposite side for the pipe's bottom lip to slide down without it digging into the soil and getting stuck at an angle. I have some lengths of heavy pipe to use as levers. The chain hoist would probably cope with the lift but I'm hoping to avoid using it. I'll throw some gravel into the bottom of the hole first for the pipe's lower edge to rest on.
Click on any image for an enlargement.
*
No comments:
Post a Comment