It rained for about a minute early on Saturday morning after a glorious week and it looked as if it was going to be another wasted opportunity, however the sun turned up the volume shortly afterwards. 😁

Time to start the retaining wall behind the shed. There has been a problem with it for years, however this year’s rain has caused a bit of subsidence and the slab of the shed is beginning to crack and you can feel that the last bay is not level.

Water running down in the park has carved a gully and exposed tree roots and in turn more of the old wall is slowly letting it’s contents out, so I need to stop it before it gets any worse. The soil is “Black Soil” which when wet just sticks to your feet and the tools. When it’s dry it can be as hard as concrete, it’s a bastard to work with.

I needed to dig two post holes, one 700 mm deep and the other around 500 mm deep. Just under the surface it began to get sticky which slowed things down but eventually I got the two holes dug. I found a paver to put in the bottom under the post and then levelled them ready for the concrete.

I used rapid set which goes off in 15 mins. Having not done this before I’d asked for a bit of advice which was, to fill the hole with one third water, have a big stick to push everything around to get it all even and just add in the premix and add more water if necessary. If I add too much it just takes a bit longer to cure apparently so that OK.

The cross timbers are just bracing. To the right side you can see the storm water pipe which has dropped quite a bit so what I hope to do is build up that corner too and then back fill with the earth in front. It will take a few weeks to get it done I think. I’d carried 9 bags of concrete and used 7, each one weighing 20kg…so that was a workout.

I’m about 30m from the house so getting power and water to this location is challenging and so a lot of legwork is needed and also because I can’t get a wheel barrow through the gap in the fence.

I’m quite pleased with the outcome but I’m knackered today but that didn’t stop catching up with friends to go to Mt Cootha for a bit of a hike. I think I’ll sleep well tonight 😴