Yesterday morning a crew of four or five hearty young guys arrived with shovels, picks, pallets of stone and a pile of gravel to start transforming the space formerly occupied by a crumbling railroad tie wall. While they were on lunch break today I snapped these photos. The first one shows an almost complete terrace wall by the driveway. The yard at top will be leveled and the terrace planter will let us re-plant a bulb and shade garden for passers by to enjoy.
This is intensive physical hand labor and I can't imagine how these guys' backs feel at night. Each block weighs between 25 and 75 pounds. The north end of the terrace should be finished before the storms roll in this afternoon, they say. The tarps will cover everything over night.
Another view of the terrace on the north half of the yard. The blocks standing on end are cap stones that will be put in place with cement when the second tier is in place.
A project like this also involves neighbors, since the tie wall abutted Mr. Guy's driveway on the north. They have been very understanding and said they didn't mind; they have had their cars on the street every morning. This morning, Norm said the first truck arrived while it was still dark outside and he had to scramble to get OUR cars on the street!
Lunch break ended and the crew was back at work, starting to fill in the slope behind the new wall. So far there have been no surprises from their digging, but I think a few thousand ground-dwelling hornets that used to live in this hill have been terribly inconvenienced. The man in the black shirt is the senior member of this crew, and he thinks they will finish the north wall, and the rest of the job, tomorrow.
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