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Army_Air_Force

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Everything posted by Army_Air_Force

  1. About the last four barrow loads was done in the rain, but by that time, I wasn't going to stop for anything. Feeling very tired, but really pleased with the way it's looking now. Can't wait to see it turn green.
  2. Once that was done, another six bulk bags of soil were emptied onto the lawn, almost another two tons. This time, rather than going straight from the bag to the lawn, it was all sieved into a wheelbarrow to get the stones, glass, nails, clay balls and pottery out of it. That left some quite nice soil, which was tipped onto the lawn and raked out flat, ready for seeding.
  3. July 9th I got a proper day's hard work out of Lynne on the 9th, not just sitting behind a desk earning money! We continued bagging our front garden Mount Snowdon, filling another fifteen bulk bags with at least four tons of topsoil. Based on the amount of bag filling we've done so far, we had much more than eight tons of soil delivered! We still have half a mountain out front! All of the bags filled across the 9th, were transported around the back with the Dodge again. I really would be lost without that crane on the back. Several bags were dumped by the lawn with the rest piled up by the workshop. July 10th We hired a vibrating plate compactor, to firm up the tons of topsoil already spread out over the new lawn. It was hard going at first, as the clay soil was wet and sticky from the overnight rain. A sprinkling of sand over the area helped it slide without sticking.
  4. We did put some slug pellets down, but I don't think they can be bothered climbing up the wooden lawn edging, over two feet of slates, climbing another two feet of steel planter, before finally seeing food. I think it's probably just too much effort for them, considering there's lots of other plants in the garden they could go for.
  5. The soil quality isn't as good as the first stuff we got for the veggie planters, but at £12 per ton, much more affordable than the original £100 per 850Kg bag - especially with 8 tons delivered! There's quite a few big stones and broken glass to pick out, but it's fine for under a lawn. I'll probably do more sieving for the railway embankment area, since we'll be planting in it.
  6. July 7th On the 7th, I started spreading soil. The nine bags on the lawn, have now all been emptied and raked out to flatten the surface. Around 3.5 tons at a guess. It's not level, as the height of the garden drops from left to right towards the railway, but it's moderately flat now. It's not quite up to the final lawn height and I haven't filled the ramp from the lower lawn yet. I need to bag and transport more soil from the front garden before I can go further - Sunday's job.
  7. July 6th No pictures for today. I had the Dodge out to move the soil, so it's nothing that you haven't already seen. I got eleven of the bags transported to the back garden, with nine of them dropped on the left side of the lawn and the earth ramp from the lower lawn. Two bags were dropped by the workshop as I was running out of space. I left the right side of the lawn empty, so that I can pull back the weed membrane to start spreading the soil. Once the right side of the lawn is levelled and the current bags are empty, I can drop the next load on the right side and work on the left.
  8. By the end of the afternoon, I'd partially filled fifteen bulk bags with around 3~400Kg in each to be within the lifting ability of my Dodge, without overloading the rear springs. It was really tiring, so assuming I can move tomorrow, I'll get the Dodge out again and start transporting it to the back garden. In other news, the two veggie planters are filling out well with carrots, cauliflowers, cabbage, potatoes and strawberries. I had a temporary net over the strawberries to keep the birds off, but finished a more practical netting frame today, with opening lids for easy access. I need another larger one for the other planter, but that's probably a rainy day project.
  9. July 5th At around 8:15am on Wednesday morning, a big truck turned up loaded with 8 tons of topsoil. Rather than a tipper truck, it had a crane and grab to unload it. I tried to rig a bulk bag to hold it open so the soil could be dumped into the bags, but the soil weight kept flattening the bag. So I gave up on that idea and just got the soil dumped on the drive. I had a number of bulk bags from previous deliveries, though some were being used to cover the new lawn area to stop weed growth. I had an old plastic tarp with some holes that I spread out on the lawn area instead, so that I could use the bags for moving the topsoil.
  10. It's the same with the laurel. If you don't keep on top of it, it just goes crazy.
  11. The trimming left the railway area much more tidy, but it will look so much better once the embankment is built and planted and is showing some colour. July 1st/2nd There was more rain on the 1st, but I managed to paint the inside edge of the lawn edging sleepers with bitumen before the rain came. Sunday the 2nd was better, though still a few showers. I started barrowing topsoil from the bulk bag by the workshop to the new lawn, then raking it out level. The first layer was slowly walked over to pack it down before a second layer was added to bring it up to the final height. This gave me an indication of how much topsoil I'd need for the rest of the lawn. The rest of the day was spent trimming the laurel. On the morning of the 3rd, I ordered eight tons of topsoil to finish the lawn and the embankment. That should arrive on Wednesday morning.
  12. June 30th The Fuchsia was shedding flowers at the slightest breeze, so cutting it back was a priority to save the ballast from being covered, particularly with strong winds forecast. I started chopping away, cutting it back and down in height and in the end, had filled a half ton dumpy bag full of cuttings. After sweeping up the bits on the plastic sheet, it was moved to around the conifer, as that also needed trimming. While the hedge trimmers were out, I also cut back the purple bush on the lawn, which while it was only trimmed a couple of months ago, had also sprouted eighteen inch long stems. Just as I finished that, the rain started and it just got heavier. That ended work for the day.
  13. The area along the gate was the last to be filled for the day, though it still needs building up a little more along the decorative sleepers to the side and far end. I still have one 300Kg load by the railway to finish this area. I'll hang on to the other 600Kg by the workshop for now, in case there is any settling that needs a top up. There's no hurry to spread that on the driveway. By the end of the day, I'd emptied another four bags of gravel, around another 1200Kg and have most of the area filled to its final level. I've decided not to go with a top layer of silver/grey granite. I quite like the colour of the cream/brown/grey mix of the river gravel. It will also save me another £100. After the last of the gravel has been spread out, I'll be moving on to levelling the lawn area, ready for seeding. The final layer of decorative sleepers on the wall will probably be left until all the building works are complete.
  14. June 28th The 28th was a day of heavy showers. I was out spreading gravel again, but there were frequent pauses, hiding in the shed, waiting for rain to pass. The plant in the first picture is now shedding flowers into the gravel. Having blown them all away with a leaf blower, I covered the area with a plastic sheet. I need to cut this plant back at some point soon, but for now, the plastic will protect the area. I partially opened the gate and that allowed me to access the track with the wheelbarrow. The remaining areas between the sleepers were slowly filled and raked out. Once up to the top of the sleepers, I was then able to barrow loads to the edge of the track and build that up to the wooded edging. When it comes time to do the earth embankment, I'll have to cover the gravel so I don't spill top soil on it. The conifer in the foreground also needs a little trimming.
  15. June 22nd Further gravel washing and spreading continued on the 22nd, filling the area across the end of the track, closest to the hawthorn hedge. This area ended up taking a full 850Kg bag to fill it. June 23rd I spent much of Friday the 23rd, decanting the three remaining bulk bags, into six other bags, giving me a total of nine at a little under 300Kg each. Nothing was done over the weekend, as I was at a Fly-In in Yorkshire on Saturday and a local Jeep event on Sunday. June 26th On Monday morning, I got the Dodge back out, re-assembled the crane and started transporting the gravel to the bottom of the garden. Eighteen trips in all. Reverse up the drive to the front, hook up the load, drive forwards to the back of the house and onto the lawn, then reverse down the lawn and drop the load by the railway. Then forwards up the lawn, reverse onto the drive and backwards to the front of the house to repeat again. This took me until lunch time. I took seven bags to the build site and because I may have a little more than needed, dropped the last two at the back of the workshop. If I need them for the railway, I can move them, otherwise, they are in the right place for spreading on the drive. Out of the seven bags dumped on the new lawn area, another two bags of gravel were washed, tipped into the wheel barrow, wheeled around to the fence section and tipped out. That was then spread around with a garden rake, used upside down, so the prongs didn't cut into the weed membrane. The rake was the easiest way to move the gravel around the sleepers and rails. Everywhere has at least a thin covering of gravel, but along the gate and three gaps between sleepers all need building up in height. That took me until late afternoon and then I packed up as I had to be out early evening.
  16. By 9:30pm, I'd emptied three bags, the equivalent of one 850Kg bag. It looks like it has covered a large area, but it isn't packed down and isn't at full height yet, so still a long way to go.
  17. After 7pm, it was still 22 degrees, but I went back outside to start spreading gravel. The gravel was quite dusty, with a fine silt all over. I didn't want this washing onto the the weed membrane, as it was just going to provide somewhere for weeds to grow. So all the gravel was washed as I scooped it out of the bags, to get the worst of the silt off before spreading it around. I balanced the wheelbarrow on the sleeper wall and loaded it up with washed gravel. This could then be wheeled along the top of the wall and onto the track bed.
  18. It was hot work, but eventually I got the six bags driven across the lawn and dumped on the new lawn, ready to start spreading. This was as close as I could get them. By this time I was melting in the heat, so packed up the Dodge and came indoors to cool off.
  19. June 21st Around noon, a big delivery truck turned up and dropped off five 850Kg bags of river gravel. The one day I wanted overcast and cool, it was at least 24 degrees. I started decanting gravel from the large 850Kg bag, into smaller half ton bags, to split the load into three. Two large bags were split giving me six loads to move. The Dodge was brought out of the garage again and the crane mounted. I then drove to the front of the house and hooked up the first bag.
  20. Nothing, just a view of the wild flower, mini embankment beyond the track.
  21. The top and bottom rails were fitted first. The bottom rail was mounted quite high, to allow for ballast height below it. The last two pictures of the day with all three planks attached. They looked a bit fresh, so planned to do some weathering and dry brushing on the planks and posts. I may yet add some short diagonal braces at the bottom of the left fence post to give it a little more support.
  22. The second fence post was screwed directly to the gatepost. The tops of both fence posts were trimmed at a slight angle to encourage water to drain off the top. There was evidence of rot, splitting and woodworm in the planks, so there was some gluing and clamping first to fix the splits. To harden up the rot, I mixed a batch of waterproof PVA glue, water and shed paint and painted several coats onto the planks, allowing the mix so soak in. The two darker planks have their shed paint coats applied. The lighter one has the PVA mix and still needed further coats.
  23. June 13th Before the ballast can be laid, I needed to get the fence made to the left of the gate. The posts I got from my neighbour were slightly over long so they were trimmed down this morning. The first post was screwed to the hawthorn sleepers and the height was then projected across to the gatepost so the height of that could be cut. All the fence parts were painted in Dark Oak shed paint, however, the rungs of the fence all needed cutting to length and a matching width out of the varied scrap pieces from my neighbour.
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