Okay, I[ve been totally falling down on my intended three Boomershoot Photos of the Day per day and one Barcelona Pic of the Day per day. Why? Well, aside from catching up at work, I’ve been frantically trying to clear the side yard of accumulated stuff so that forklifts and a front-end loader can drive thru to the back of the house.
Basically, a confluence of events have pushed up our plans to rip out the old wooden retaining walls in the back yard and replace them with basalt block walls over a period of months. Now we’re gonna do it in about four weekends.
One of my uncles got a line on some gorgeous beveled-edge (ooooh) basalt blocks (retail about $4/block) and we’re getting ’em for under half-price — delivered. The catch is, they’re an overrun from some construction project, and when they’re gone, they’re gone — so we need to buy all of the block we’ll need NOW, ’cause we won’t be able to get more later.
That means I’ve got to make room in the yard for ten pallets of the stuff. My uncle’s also gonna bring his CAT down gratis to scrape the accumulated slumpage of 30 years clean and dig me a nice footing trench, before the pallets show up and take up all the turning space in the yard. Between my uncle’s free time, the CAT availability, and the deal on the blocks, we couldn’t afford to pass this up — even though we really can’t afford it after Barcelona.
Let’s just say that despite my long-held belief that living close to extended family members if you’re a reasonably successful person is actually counterproductive, a drain on your time and resources, and generally a pain in the ass, well, the balance is finally shifting in our favor a little bit. This is a BIG favor by my uncle and we really appreciate it.
Pics to come! Oh, yeah, if installing ten pallets’ worth of 65-pound blocks has any exercise value, I expect I’ll be yoked by the Rondy.