There's a Hole, There's a Hole, and Now There's a Stairway

 

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: spread the dirt across the "lawn," fertilize a bit, and re-plant in the spring. This should have the effect of lowering the grade of the rest of the hill, making mowing a little easier. Also, building up and killing some of the creeping Charlie by the patio. There is a whole lotta dirt, as Kiki's back will attest. 

Solution for #2: Was to go vertical. It changes the aesthetic from the usual horizontal. Nevertheless, we went for a mid-century modern look that incorporates multiple sizes of board. Yeah. We did it that way on purpose. 

Finally wrapped it up last night as darkness fell, activating the solar lights. It does tie the back yard together, and makes it a LOT easier to go up and down.