After Hurricane Irene

     We lost power in the middle of the hurricane, around 6:00am Sunday, so by the time the storm passed twelve hours later, we were anxious to get out of the house and find some coffee and entertainment. We found coffee, but just about every other business was closed for the hurricane, so we ended up in Warayas Park in Poughkeepsie. The river was still very high and had clearly spill out of her banks based on the debris all the way out in the parking lot.

   

 The wind was still blowing hard enough to take your breath away and make the water very choppy. We had making up stories about out all of the trinkets that washed ashore. 

 This bench was once bolted to the brick patio four feet in front of it.

 After a lovely evening watching the sun set over the Hudson River, we came home to this...

 Without a doubt, the retaining wall saved Andrew's work truck from any major damage. There were no broken windows or mirrors, just a couple of dents and scratches.

 

 

The result is more sun on my future garden and one less obstruction to the view.

 

Does anyone have a hickory nut recipe?

Retaining Wall:Completed

Retaining Wall Replacement: Part III

Afternoon of Day 2:

The corner was the last part of the wall to be built.

 

 It looked like we were going to have a half-load to a load leftover, but the corner used up quite a bit of this pile. We also placed some rock on the edge of the turnaround to prevent anyone from driving over the septic tank anymore as well to create a garden.

 

 

 After Day 3:

The third day was needed to finish the main retaining wall, build the secondary wall, and regrade the side lawn and back hill.

 

 There were several boulders left over, so we ended up with a second retaining wall which is helping level out our side yard.

 My future vegetable garden.

 

 The last part of the project is installing the catch basin, trenching a pipe from the downspout at the corner of the house to the basin, and then spreading gravel on the driveway and turnaround. 

 

Completion pictures to come later this week in Part IV. See you then!

Retaining Wall Replacement: Part II

 8:00PM

 We came home from dinner to find a second excavator and...

...rock deliveries numbers 3 and 4 of 4 in our driveway.

 

7:30AM

 

 The crew today is only about half the size of yesterday's, but they are still planning to finish the second half of the wall today.

 

The final positioning of most of the rocks is done by hand. The excavator is too strong make the final adjustments.

More pictures and videos to follow in Part III.

Retaining Wall Replacement: Part I

7:00AM

The tools of the trade...

 ....shovels, level, and mallets,...

 

  ...chisels and hammers,...

 ... your excavator,...

 ... and your dog named Luna.

 The retaining wall removal and preparation for the new wall began immediately.

 

 The back side of the retaining wall fell over in one piece, with not much effort.

 That pile represents about 10 minutes of work and that's only because they had to wait for a nest of angry bees to move along.

8:00AM

Rock delivery number 1 of 4

 The rock for our retaining wall is no ordinary rock. It is coming from Manhattan, specifically from the Second Avenue Subway line, which is currently under construction.

 

The other challenge was trying to find the pipe and distribution box for the septic. As it turns out, our 30 year old map was wrong, but they did find it after a lot of digging.

 

 

 11:45AM

Rock delivery number 2 of 4

 

Delivery number two had a small complication when the truck got pinned between the tree and the rocks that it just dumped. The exacavator had come to the rescue.

1:00PM

 

One more video to give you an idea of the pace of the work. Each rock has to be put in place, so it seems like a very slow process, until you realize how far they made it in one day. Check out those pictures in Part II.