This is what progress looks like

Today I laid some of the concrete blocks that will eventually compose our new retaining wall.  To understand how momentous an occasion this is, please indulge me while I list the tasks that had to be accomplished before the first brick could be laid:

• Painstakingly tear out the old rotted rail ties that composed the previous wall
• Dig and haul wheel-barrel after wheel-barrel full of dirt away from the site
• Acquire and install a trailer hitch for our vehicle
• Fixing up Grampa's trailer up at the river (with much help from Grampa)
• Use the trailer to acquire two types of gravel
• Shovel gravel into the trench and tamp it down
• Haul a wheel-barrel full of sand -- the very same sand that I earlier removed from the site -- back to the site, shovel it into the trench, tamp it, and painstakingly level it using a standard six-foot level and some scrap wood.

The result is what you see here:

The black tube is for drainage from our eaves trough.  In addition to laying the blocks, next on the agenda we have:

• Lay landscape fabric behind the completed wall.
• Backfill with gravel.
• Place some weeping tile and the rain drainage pipes behind the wall and embedded in the gravel
• Glue a finishing layer of bricks on the top of the wall.
• Construct a ramp so that we can get our bikes behind the house.

This retaining wall is a ridiculous amount of work.  Retaining walls are expensive.  Every retaining wall you see represents a flaw in design.