Because apparently jumping up and down on it will not settle it enough and it will settle over time to HALF its current depth if we don’t get a vibrating plate compactor thing. So I rang the hire place and booked one, which, luckily, wasn’t very expensive and we get it for two days instead of one if we have it over Sunday.
Anyway, I piled MORE AND MORE soil on it and it’s now a bit higher than it needs to be, but if Elmo’s right, I’ll be spending all day tomorrow doing the same again after the compactor settles it to almost nothing. But I guess it’s better than having to do it all again in a couple of years.
The observant among you may notice the lack of a water tank. Yes, I finally emptied it and rolled it (like a giant die) to the bottom of the long sheds, where hopefully it will go on collecting water.
I started out by filling buckets and dumping them in the (still unfilled) trench, but Elmo, ever the efficiency engineer, concocted a plan to use the lengths of old drainpipe and gutter to form a chute to the ditch. It worked perfectly and actually made a lovely noise. And effortlessly emptied all the water in about 10 minutes.
Happily, inbetween bouts of digging, I was able to sit down on our newly acquired two-seat plus table bench thingie, given to us by Jim and Arlene (Harry and Peggy’s Daughter and Son-in-law) when they were tidying up the cottage for (hopefully) sale this spring.
May we both get lucky and sell our beautiful, if possibly a bit “niche”, cottages!
Our tenants have just told us that they’re moving out, so we will have to hope we can find another tenant willing to take the place on a month-to-month contract. Bit of a sigh, but we’ve been lucky to have people taking good care of the place.
Subscribe using RSS