Layout Pt.5 Saturday.

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Saturday: I collected two more trailers full of self-compacting sand and gravel. The first trailer full was wheel-barrowed quickly onto the site and dumped randomly over the entire area to bring up the level and fill any hollows. Then it was back for more as reserve stock to improve the banks on the West side of the site. These banks are rather tall and steep for long term stability if they suffer years of weathering. Though this sand/gravel really is capable of holding a very steep slope in a mound. It has not been decided how best to use the excavated boulders yet.

Moving a trailer full of sand/gravel is not for the weak or faint hearted on undulating ground. I was forced to rock it back and forth until I could get it moving and then pray I could stop it again after it was moving. Getting the trailer moving really was at the absolute limit of my strength. Even turning it on the spot was ridiculously hard. The trailer had to be moved by hand because it was blocking the car into a tight corner. With no room to maneuver the trailer, using the car, due to a total lack of turning space.

I found I had the levels of the anchors out by a couple of inches across the site. I'm now using a 4' long builder's level fixed onto a 10' length of alloy tubing. It was completely impossible to check the levels until the piles of excavated sand had been spread out again. While I could use the screw "jacks" of the brackets on the footings it irritates me to see the tops of the concrete blocks slightly above the new ground [i.e. sand&gravel] level on one side of the octagon. I want to be able to easily go back to bare gravel in case it is ever required. So these blocks will have to be pulled out and the excavations deepened yet again. In hindsight the mounds of excavated sand/gravel should have been moved aside to allow much better monitoring of levels. I had the sand levels out by two inches working only by eye.

I have already lifted the two blocks nearest the shed to match the increased depth of sand/gravel on that side. It was impossible to lift them by hand so I used a long steel pipe as a lever with a rope loop around the brackets. The blocks then lifted but dropped back down again when I stood on them. So I had to hammer a cranked crowbar dawn beside the blocks on all four sides. By rotating the bar each time I was able to push some sand under the blocks. Then they stayed put but may still sink slightly. They are not yet uniformly supported by sand until it works its way right under them. That sounds a bit slapdash but I'll keep a close eye on them. If they do sink again I'll just have to dig them up and redo them properly. If it proves to be too late I have the adjustable bracketry to compensate. I just don't want protruding anchor blocks.

Once I had levelled the blocks I used the string again to join opposite blocks. The crossings were all close to each other so I back-filled the newly exposed blocks. It is very tiring working in a roaring gale.

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