Day 5

The day started with an obstacle:

a large and ill-defined lump of concrete serving no discernable purpose. It couldn't be pried loose, and thus, had to be destroyed by my trusty pickaxe (which I happened to buy yesterday):

That done, the ground had to be staked out for the laying in of the gravel and the eventual grading of the patio area:

Then came the placement of the drainage pipe and the begining of putting in the gravel:

In this, I was assisted (for the first time in this project, I might add), by a young 'un for hire, one Matt:

And the day ended with the completing of that project.

Leaving only a small pile of gravel behind (what am I going to do with it?):

I'm a little perturbed that the gravel I ordered was too small for the drainage task at hand (I ordered "5/8 crusher run" whatever the hell that meant, but I now think I should have ordered 1" crusher run). But there was nothing to be done about it once it was delivered.

We shall see.

Tomorrow, there should be some heavy duty tamping and the putting on of the landscape fabric. We're moving, slowly, towards the goal.

Continued, as always, on page 6.