Today’s pin is one of those that can’t be completed in one day.  We’ve actually been working on this for the past week, but today was the big brick moving day.  Several of our friends and family came over this morning to help us move 270 stone bricks that weighed 65 lbs each.  Not only did they have to haul these into our backyard, but they had to do it up a hill.  And they did it in a little over an hour.  They are complete super-heroes if you ask me.

Mike and I started Monday of this week by clearing away the old retaining wall and digging a 12″ X 60′ trench 12″ deep.  Mike did all the digging with a lot of help from Ellie.  We discovered that she really likes to catch dirt in her mouth.  I helped by shoveling the loosened dirt onto the hill and toting the old retaining wall boards up the hill into a neat stack.

Once the trench was dug, it was time to start filling with gravel.  Gravel and sand were delivered on Wednesday and we spent the better part of the day shoveling that into wheelbarrows and moving it up the hill into the trench.  What we didn’t use for the base of the trench, Mike told me we’ll use to back fill the wall.

We took a break on Thursday to enjoy Thanksgiving and to give our aching backs a break, but Friday the bricks (5 pallets of them) were delivered along with some lumber to repair a section of siding damaged by rain.  Mike’s dad, uncle and cousin worked on the siding after the bricks were moved.  They did a marvelous job.

Now all the bricks are stacked in our backyard ready to be placed.  Once the first row is set and level the rest should go pretty quickly.  We literally couldn’t have done it without all the excellent help we received.  Once the wall’s complete I will post pictures and we’ll certainly be having a “retaining wall” celebration party! 

“I love helping my dad in the yard.  Catching dirt is my favorite!”

“I’m really more of a supervisor, not an actual worker.”