We just got back from our annual trip to see an airshow. It was a fantastic show again, despite the rain and some low clouds, the airport did a fantastic job of filling the spaces that were created due to certain planes being unable to fly.

Every year that we go there is a guy who does a silly acrobatic act (he built the plane in prison and has escaped but doesn’t know how to fly), which ends with him landing on the worlds smallest runway which is mounted on top of a pickup truck. It is actually a great act, but because we have seen it around 12 times, we often skip watching and use the time to grab lunch or refreshments.

I reference the above so that my train of thought is clear as mud for you, the reader, when trying to figure out why I named this blog what I did…planes on the brain!

Anyways, the landing for our path is starting to take shape. K has spent a few cooler mornings and evenings backfilling the corner landing area. It is going to be a nice, wide and mostly flat area to turn the wagon around or get larger materials around the corner and down the path. Hopefully it will also help reduce the grade from the grassy top area to that landing as it is currently quite steep.

K backfilled with some larger rocks that we had been using as a temporary dry stack wall. This should help with drainage in that area. We did also add a tilt to the wall to ensure it would hold back the amount of soil we knew would need to go there in order to create a flat(ish) landing.

Once he filled it with rocks, he topped it up with soil, which we still have to pack down. We are letting Mother Nature do a little bit of the work for us with rain, but we will still pack it down to ensure it is nice and solid. We are also going to leave it over the winter and then top it up however much is needed before doing a crushed gravel layer and then the paving.

We still have some more backfilling to do before we will pound it down. Ideally we will get it just an inch or two under the top of the walls so that it will sit about 8″ below the tops. That will give us 3-4″ of crushed gravel and a few inches of pavement.

It’s interesting to look back at what we started with to what we have accomplished with the path.

We cant wait to see what this are looks like next year!