ollibees

May Bank Holiday weekend – The Labour Day(s)

• By admin
• 2013, 9 May
• 6 Comments

The digger is in – let’s get digging!

First May Bank Holiday weekend saw us turning it into a 6-day break from the office and dedicating it to some enjoyable hard labour instead.

It all started with the delivery of the mini-digger on Thursday. Alas, Malc did his back in just prior to its delivery, and hence that first day mainly involved me labouring and Malc “commandeering”! 🙂

From then on, we:

• Partially finished off the raised beds as much as we could, but ran out of all 40 railway slippers! (10 more have just been delivered) -> The raised bed is there to allow us to construct a raised terrace in level with the house floor and to make our sloping-in-all-directions garden somewhat more user-friendly and functional. It also allows to use up the excavated rubble we’ve dug out for the extension’s foundations.
• Dag a huge hole for the extension’s foundation. Part 2 to follow, as we are yet to dig for more foundations on the side of the house.
• Pulled out (with the digger’s help) a massive stump of a 50 yo hawthorn tree, which took 3 days in total – way longer than ever anticipated!
• Levelled off the terrace by the workshop, aka the shed
• Built steps down  from the terrace to the snug corner at the top rear of the garden, which is yet to be “transformed” into a “sunset patio” with a pergola covered in sweet honey suckle (in some years to come) or grapes (if the climes ever permit!), with built-in benches and a pizza-oven 🙂
• Lifted and cleaned old patio tiles and broke up concrete pavement by the house
• Sifted by hand approx. 10 tonnes of rescued topsoil to fill up the raised beds (trying to save as many tulip and daffs bulbs as we could!)
• Partially paved the terrace by the workshop, with the saved old patio tiles
• And of course, had a little bit of fun, entertaining our friends with a BarBQ  in the lovely warmth that Sunday afternoon treated us all to!

All in all, lots was done. Yet lots more left to do!

This weekend will see us finishing off the raised beds, sieving more topsoil, finishing off paving the terrace and the steps and, perhaps, knocking down the lean-to conservatory, building the pergola on the “sunset patio”, building shelves in the workshop and clearing the garage, as well as shredding a huge pile of hawthorn brunches for mulch for the allotment. And then there is a whole lot of firewood to chop for next winter (thank you hawthorn), but that will depend on whether we will have the time, the will or the wish to carry on!

Oh, the conservatory is on Gumtree by the way, so if you fancy to treat yourself to a cost-effective purchase – do have a look! 🙂