As above. Not been around for a while, regularly....Longest time out ive had from bikes as such....started a garden project last march and its still going (but im 80% through it). Due to the location and lie of my house on the land its been the most labour intensive thing ive ever done. I live on a hill with 3 flights of stairs and 100ft garden and ive been working 90% of the time on my own. Everything but everything has to be carried down by hand, no heavy machinery can get down there bar my cement mixer that i bought...eg - pallet of concrete blocks arrives..pick up block, carry down the driveway, through the garage down steep flight of stairs, another big stair, across patio, down 4 stairs, 100ft down the garden, drop concrete block...repeat...looking back i would say in one way or another ive moved about 40 tonnes of materials (from moving raw materials/deliveries) to digging/moving earth around the garden. Its been totally fucking knackering (im 53 this year) to the point that if im not working (at work) im working at home on the garden, or resting/sleeping ie if a tonne of chippings turns up thats 2 hours after work to get it down the garden (and then a couple of nights to recover). I watch the gardening programs and laugh when 20 bodies turn up with machinery and do it in 5 days... Anyway...ive still possibly got a Greenhouse to build (by hand the old fashioned way) and path to lay but might leave that til next year and get back to enjoying life a bit more....hyper has only done about 800 miles in the last calender year. Itll be nice to get out an about a bit (got the TT coming up) so thats the first thing to look forward to.!
How it all started (this was how its been for the last 10 years or so).... Work starts..... That hole was about 20 tonnes - luckily my neighbour to the right took a bit of it! All that work to create an area for a bee hive only to find out my other half is allurgic to bee stings...awesome... continuing - more work... Another wall to build this weekend....oh if any brickies on here take the piss thats fine...up til this point ive never built a wall in my life....but im learning fast...
Cheers....as i say its literally been back breaking to the point i have a ready supply of Naproxen on the materials moving days....! The oak frame took 6 of us to get down there for each length...
Ironically my mother in law keeps saying (you ought to chuck a liner in there and fill it up with the hose...)
I can sympathise, my first house was on a hill so no getting a digger into the garden, and concrete blocks etc needed to be carried up stairs, we dug around 50 ton out of the back garden by hand, wheelbarrowing it around to the front and tipping it over the wall into a farmers trailer who would take it away for £40 a load. Then my dad built all the retaining walls with me and all the brickwork, I had a sparky put in the lights and a remote control switch for them and a mate did the turf for me and I think it took about 18 months..... It definitely added to the value of the house though!!
Looks great, just think how fit you now are...! I built my own home over 8 years...took me close to 10 to recover! (I'm not joking!)
Yep - i totally see where youre coming from - i renovated my last house...my mother in law's house and this one...and then the garden...
Reminds me of* Launceston in cornwall, which recently amounted to a 528mile round trip for no bother. And yesterday a lovely ride over too Barrow-in-furness, what beautiful scenery however a large amount of mullah has been proposed for a wagon project! I'm afraid I don't envy people in houses, you are stuck with your neighbours.
Yeah - as i say....im just so tired at night im usually in bed by 9ish....just finished this evening....an hour digging out roots...tonight off, tomorrow night off, friday off to start the second wall....executive decision tonight to go forward with the greenhouse and vegtable patch....
