poplar road

Richard’s friend George (at right) came over early this morning to help Richard continue with rock wall construction. I watched them work, George in the excavator and Richard in the Bobcat. Wow, now there’s an example of many hands making light work. When they quit in the heat just after noon, they’d pretty much finished the job. We’ll need to pack more gravel on top, and Richard wants me to fill in the chinks with smaller rock still, but the main job is done. (The rest of the wall around the fruit trees will be tackled in the fall when the weather is kinder.)

It ended up using more large rocks and lies much more vertical than Richard could have done on his own. George has some impressive excavator skills. Even without a thumb on it, he was picking up rocks pretty effectively and positioning them without having to get out of the machine constantly. Richard, meanwhile, scooped up all the dirt removed from the bank opposite the garage and used that to fill in where the root cellar was. It’s definitely a sturdy wall. Not sure if it will be as easy to plant with rock garden perennials, but for now it should stay free of weeds except along the top edge, and that’s mostly grass between the apricot and the apple tree anyway. We gained four feet of room to manoeuver the car into the garage, and it should be easier now for Richard to level the ground in front of the doors so the water flows away from, rather than onto, the garage floor. Now it’s about 32 degrees outside so Richard and I are going to have lunch in the cool of our air conditioning. Tonight, George comes back with partner Diane for dinner – a thank you for all that hard work.