pave the world - part 1

A couple months back I wrote about some free bricks.

The idea seemed easy,

pave our little world.

Time flew by.

The plan was a summer project,

and now it's summer!

The hard choice was where to start.

The easy place would be inside the fence,

where there are no borders just flat dirt.

The needed spot was alongside the alley.

I didn't write about this,

but during the wheel swap on the merc,

a jack stand was mounted on the dirt/cement,

and kinda slipped.

Nothing major,

just a wake up of how we could use every precious square foot of hard land.

In addition the weeds won't get so crazy,

and the dirt will not blow into the garage.

One evening with the help of the moon,

we whipped through a couple rows,

realizing this was way more work then anticipated.

The free bricks were only half cleaned.

Many required tedious chipping of old cement.

The hard pack dirt was full of little rocks,

and needed to be dug out flush with the alley cement.

Holey chit.

A weekend lunchtime Craigslist hunt found another free brick stash.

Nice and clean but a newer style,

a little thinner and sharper.

Guess these will go on the other side of the fence...

We powered down on Sunday.

You can see the dirt had to be dug out to make level with the cement.

using mainly a putty knife.

Yeah.

I missed the pic of the previous edge.

The line up was stepped and too high,

with big triangular gaps.

Not good for skating.

Time to do it right and fit the edges.

We do rent,

however the bricks will be here forever.

May as well do it right.

The kids helped a ton.

Chipping the bricks clean,

bringing water,

playing in the dirt...

Little by little the area was filled.

All of this was with chipping hammers and a putty knife.

Brutal.

I must be part chameleon,

as my skin started to blend in with the brick red surroundings.

You'd think I'd know better!

Now it seems like the end is near.

A couple hours every evening when the sun is low,

maybe by next weekend.

Funny how the nasty spots turn into the nicest spots!

TP