Fire Pit or Pit of Hell? Part 1

It's Friday, and Cat and I are both off for the next three days. We had originally intended to go camping, but a usual, priorities change. Instead, I'm working on moving the fire pit because it was in the way up by the garden. Like most things I do, moving the fire pit is not as simple as "moving a fire pit".

Today, I shoveled and leveled a path next to the house, I then put a 4" layer of mulch on top of that. Amazing how something that took me 4-5 hours to do can be summed up in a sentence! I moved about 6-7 wheel barrow loads of dirt and then graded it so it wouldn't push water against the house. After all that, I laid a layer of newspapers over the ground to act as a weed barrier before putting the mulch down. I got the mulch off the side of the road where everyone dumps their chipped yard debris. Total cost so far.... Nada! Except my aching bones from swinging a mattock all day. As someone who had to use a pick axe most of his life to dig holes, I want to sing praises for the tool know as a mattock. It's a beast, a real soil wrecker. Eight inches of curved steel 3 inches wide with a slight arc. Think: hoe on steroids.

I had planned on fishin this afternoon, but alas, it's finally raining!!!!!! A pretty decent one at that. I do hope it keeps up for awhile. Tomorrow I plan on getting into leveling the back yard and removing the turf. The yard is already pretty level, but it needs some slight dirt movement and the grass has gotta go. It's a large space we're mulching, so it will probably be a long day tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be able to at least start digging the hole for the fire pit by Sunday. Will I get that far? Who knows. It's supposed to rain on and off all weekend, so I'll be dodging rain to get it done.

Oh yeah, one my ask why I just built a path beside the house when I'm supposed to be rebuilding a fire pit. I need easier access on that side of the house, unfortunately, a slope in the yard comes almost all the way to the house, so..... walkway to fire pit. The pit itself is kinda hard to describe, so I'll just have to take pics when I get started on it. Until then, I think I smell a rainy day nap brewing......