As you know it has taken a bit of time to get our ducks in a row and we have had a few setbacks, including personal motivation issues in getting our new walls built, but now we finally seem like we are on our way.

We got the post holes dug, delay. We got the posts cemented in, delay. We got the wiring done, delay. Well, we finally got started on filling the walls with rocks. Sunday morning, after relaxing with a cup of tea and a good book for a few hours, we headed outside to see what we could get done. The hope was for at least 1 section finished, possibly 2 sections. Kurt and I were both motivated to get going and had a good amount of energy to start hauling the rocks.

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Our pile of rocks has been dwindling with the 4 walls that we built last year, but we figured we would have enough for at least the bottom wall. It is a bit of a mix with some bigger rock and lots of small rock. Luckily, not so small that it was unusable. So we started loading our cart, sorting through the rock to try and filter the larger pieces into the cart. The smaller ones fill in the gaps well enough, but the large ones give the wall the finished look that we love. I preferred a shovel because of the size of some of the spiders, while Kurt preferred picking through the pile with his gloved hands.

Our cart is not in the best of shape, and should have been replaced this year, so we had to do smaller loads, with both of us keeping firm hands on it. It took a few more loads than our normal heaping loads, but we made great progress.

I got completely gung-ho and pronounced that we would get the whole wall filled! Kurt took a more realistic approach and suggested that we aim for a couple of the panels and see where we were at. So on we worked and it went well. The walls filled quickly and as we finished a section, I would wire the tops while Kurt grabbed another load.

As we went along, we kept the bigger rocks and made sure that the base of each section was filled with the larger rocks so that the smaller ones would not pop out the bottom. Getting a good base in each section was a great accomplishment considering it was getting harder and harder to find larger rocks from our pile.

After a couple hours of hauling and filling, our momentum began to fizzle a little. Both of us were getting hungry and we knew that if we stopped to eat, the likelihood of us continuing would be minimal. After the last cart-full of rocks, I asked Kurt how the pile was looking since I had stayed down to wire the top of the second panel. He said it was getting slim pickings. So, we decided to call it a day and get something to eat.

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I feel like we accomplished more than I thought we would. We filled 2 panels full with a 3rd panel just about full. The other two had a solid base started and shouldn’t take long to finish up. I have put in an order for more rocks, which will come tomorrow. Our plan is to finish up that wall tomorrow so that we can work on backfilling. As a reward for finishing one of the walls, we are going to take an evening off from yard work and go for a drive in the woods with the dogs and have dinner by a lake. Sounds perfect to me!