A break, a jcb and a whole lot of gravel
Following on from an emotional roller coaster ride of April’s events, June decided we needed a bit of recharge time. We had a loverly relaxing week at Milford Haven, in Pembrokeshire, with only one overcast morning. The apartment was modern, quiet, and a short stroll to the harbour. We revisited some places from holidays over 30 years previously and some more recent. I collected bits of driftwood to make a hanging arty thing for the garden, listened to the marine traffic on my trusty Bearcat radio and we both read books with paper pages! One morning I ventured into the town and if you don’t know Milford, it’s built on the side of a hill. I took the short climb, almost vertical and had to stop half way to admire the view, and wait for a St Bernard with oxygen. One cafe at the harbour does takeaway breakfasts and by 9:15 one morning, I returned with two specials, which was enough for a second breakfast the following morning. That’s defiantly a bargain meal. We would like to return later in the year for another break as it’s about an hour and a half journey, not too far away, but not too close to feel like a proper break.
With a continuation of the fine weather, Dave arrived with a mini digger and proceeded to drag the offending trees out of the stream/river from last winters windy weather. I now have another ton or so of wood for the coming winter to saw, split and stack. Having cleared the wood, I got Dave to clear and flatten an area adjacent to the stream for a sitting area. That done, we proceeded to the other area for sorting – a bit of terracing just down from the patio. This area has been on my mind for the last two years, on and off, as it slopes very steeply to the stream, and is full of brambles, hogweed and nettles. The grand plan was to terrace the bank for a poly tunnel. After an hour or so, hey presto, terracing job done.
A few days later, 7 ton of gravel was delivered in bags, one into the woods and the other six onto the drive. We hired a tracked petrol driven wheelbarrow which could handle half a ton or 1/3 of a bag of gravel in one journey. At the peak of work, I managed to shift 2 ton before lunch on a scorching hot day by starting at 8:00 while it was still cool. Alas, the gravel still had to be shovelled into the hopper. June had no issues driving the wheelbarrow back and for, which helped no end. Dave reappeared in due course with his whacker plate to smooth the areas out. I built retaining walls with 2.4 m sleepers, angle iron brackets, fixing plates and rebar. The petrol hole borer made easy work for the 3*3 fencing posts used to support the sleepers, but needed an old vacuum cleaner to get the dirt out of the bottom of the 0.75m holes. The 4*3 m poly tunnel took me an hour or so to build and 4 able bodies to fit the cover. A few weeks on and everything is blooming and healthy. Outstanding jobs are installing power and water, but that’s a fill in job after the next big project………
