Another Litany
Yesterday I dug a trench across the garden to get at least a beginning of the retaining wall task done. I didn't pay sufficient attention to my body and have since discovered (1) a sunburn on my upper back and (2) my lower back is completely non-functional for pain-free activities. Having treated my back with a hot pad and some general muscle-mashing from my mom I am delighted to say the the pain has shrunk down to a single strip across my lower back. Having most of your back experiencing muscle spasms is not a nice thing.
Today I'm debating with myself as to whether I need to sink the trench another three inches to give the footing some soil to counterbalance any forward motion the back fill might care to generate. I've concluded that I don't need to lay gravel for the base because the soil I'm working with is very sandy and compactable (LJ doesn't think that's a word?). I'll probably get it to the depth I really want, smash it down a bit, and then pour water along the trench and have another go at smashing it flat. I've tied out a piece of string from stick to stick stuck in the dirt and leveled the string as precisely as I can. If I go for another three inches I'm going to have to re-level the lines, but for now my perfectionism is satisfied.
All the critters are still alive. It seems that the raccoons are either unable to open the coop (I should hope so, considering how I built it) or uninterested in a chicken dinner they have to catch and kill first. I've come up with an idea for the built-in watering system and I think I'm going to mirror it with a built-in feed system, but I'm not sure on that because the chickens can be convinced to go into the coop at night by pouring new food for them. Maybe I'll just put in a little hatch so the food can be added without the awkwardness of reaching underneath the shelf for the laying boxes. The water is going to be bolted onto the outside of the coop and I'm gonna put a little trough inside and connect it with some tubing. Hard or soft is still unknown, since I'm pretty sure I can find both in the garage, but I'll try it out and see if the mechanism might prefer one or the other.
The rabbit likes her hay and most of the other things I've been bringing in for her. I'm tempted to set her out to graze under a cage-form, but I'm also still debating about whether or not she'll dig her way out while I'm not looking. If I had the space I'd build a cage system and put some hefty wire a foot or so below the surface as a block for the digging, but I don't have the space, so I may just have to wire the whole cage and let her at the greens that come through the wires.
I am feeling generally successful. My plants are alive and growing, my critters are alive and seem to all be fairly happy, the wall is beginning to happen, and I have done all of this myself. This makes all of it "mine" in a way, and that is helping with my general sensation of useless parasite status in my parents' house.
Today I'm debating with myself as to whether I need to sink the trench another three inches to give the footing some soil to counterbalance any forward motion the back fill might care to generate. I've concluded that I don't need to lay gravel for the base because the soil I'm working with is very sandy and compactable (LJ doesn't think that's a word?). I'll probably get it to the depth I really want, smash it down a bit, and then pour water along the trench and have another go at smashing it flat. I've tied out a piece of string from stick to stick stuck in the dirt and leveled the string as precisely as I can. If I go for another three inches I'm going to have to re-level the lines, but for now my perfectionism is satisfied.
All the critters are still alive. It seems that the raccoons are either unable to open the coop (I should hope so, considering how I built it) or uninterested in a chicken dinner they have to catch and kill first. I've come up with an idea for the built-in watering system and I think I'm going to mirror it with a built-in feed system, but I'm not sure on that because the chickens can be convinced to go into the coop at night by pouring new food for them. Maybe I'll just put in a little hatch so the food can be added without the awkwardness of reaching underneath the shelf for the laying boxes. The water is going to be bolted onto the outside of the coop and I'm gonna put a little trough inside and connect it with some tubing. Hard or soft is still unknown, since I'm pretty sure I can find both in the garage, but I'll try it out and see if the mechanism might prefer one or the other.
The rabbit likes her hay and most of the other things I've been bringing in for her. I'm tempted to set her out to graze under a cage-form, but I'm also still debating about whether or not she'll dig her way out while I'm not looking. If I had the space I'd build a cage system and put some hefty wire a foot or so below the surface as a block for the digging, but I don't have the space, so I may just have to wire the whole cage and let her at the greens that come through the wires.
I am feeling generally successful. My plants are alive and growing, my critters are alive and seem to all be fairly happy, the wall is beginning to happen, and I have done all of this myself. This makes all of it "mine" in a way, and that is helping with my general sensation of useless parasite status in my parents' house.