To The Surbiton Manor Born

  Oh sure, it looks innocent. We placed the last stair stringer of the year, four steps this time, into the side of the cliff that we call our back yard. The digging revealed no gold Krugerrands buried by the hated previous owners. This may be a repeat of the last blog entry, but the dig did reveal a layer of heavy clay and rocks, probably last unearthed by a glacier thousands of years ago as it retreated, that was almost immovable.  Almost. It just took most of Saturday and most of Sunday to get deep enough into the hill to make the stairway level. 200 lbs. of Quickcrete (TM)   was poured.  The orange level tool was used extensively.  While the stairs were then in place, at last, a couple of problems remained.  1) What to do with all of the earth moved out of the hole?  2) How to build a wooden retainer to keep the dirt walls along the stairs from caving in. It's made tricky by the fact that the stairs are too short to use a 2x6, and too tall to use a 2x4. The solution for #1: spr

There are more stairs to add. It's a long way up the Steepmeadow Mountain. And today we hit a layer of rock in the heavy clay. So I was reduced to actually using a pick axe. I'm nursing a blister. I'd wanted to install one more 2x6 plank, but I'd got to the point where I actually couldn't lift the pick axe to hit the unyielding ground one more time. It will yield, it is just a matter of time . I also can't believe that I'm actually digging a hole and forgetting the sun.  Still, the sun is the same in a relative way and we're older. Winter is closing in. You can tell, because the garden is in some pretty hard shape. Witness these diseased tomato plants.  This does not necessarily mean that they've stopped producing tomatoes, of which we have many. We spent a merry weekend processing zucchini into 2 cup frozen bags and blanching tomatoes. Soon, we will be eating another tomato pie. And four quarts of refrigerator pickles.  It is satisfying to have enou