Slow & Steady Wins The Race

So we finally got a respite from the rain. Enough to get going on the patio, anyway. And we had some time to figure out the retaining/terracing system we needed in place for the patio to be at the correct level with the height of the pergola and the slope of the land. I swear, I haven't done this much math since high school!

We were able to get three railroad ties in this weekend, as a retaining system. The slope off the back of the house is fairly significant and with the pergola already in place, we had to be careful not to raise the patio so high that my extremely tall husband would bang his head on it. You can see the two steps we already have in place. I am loving this stone! It's going to be so beautiful when we are finished.

We also borrowed a tiller from our friends so we could actually dig the soil out; this was a godsend!

You can see what sort of gravelly clay mess we are dealing with here. Surprisingly, we removed 6 wheelbarrows full of this stuff today. We have a lot more work ahead of us.