Holding back dirt is important, otherwise the rains will cause erosion to wash away much of it and can put the building at risk. So we have taken some time to build a wall to help hold back the run away dirt and by engineering the area a little better the erosion should be no longer an issue. Luckily the construction of it has been going well, its a slow process, double checking to make sure the timbers hold back the dirt.
Using rail road ties bought from a near by town we place them using the skid steer and then back fill with dirt and sometimes a little concrete.
It really has come a long way, from the first few that made the foundation.
These poles look so tall but by the end it was good we made them as tall as we could while still dumping dirt.
The skid steer made easy work of moving 200-300 pound timbers in place. That fork has been really useful.
The other machine the UTV is great for hauling water, and cleaning up all the concrete trash bags.
The amount of dirt required to back fill this area was unfathomable. Maybe over 100 loads using the skid steer bucket.
Its all holding well together, we used some timber lock screws at the bottom and the weight of the timbers above held in the rest.
We have also ran underground tubing for the gutters.. It runs off into the forest around 30 feet away. Don't mind the shack, its left over ruins from the previous owners. Yet to clean it all up.
The tubing goes under the ties and then up into the gutter's downspout.
The corners are looking good as well, around 8 tall right now we may add a few more timbers to level it out to the buildings foundation.
Walking up on the retaining wall back fill we can see how high the timbers come.
Once we are finished we will cut the tops off, but for now we will leave it so we can add more easily.
Digging out the foundation a little I added the tubing for the downspout. And going to add back dirt and cover the area with fresh slate rock.
Next is to add a few more timbers, more dirt and finally gravel on top.
My down spouts are fitted with rain collectors, see the red plug. I will add 55 gallon barrels to store water run-off from my building. First I need to add back rock to the foundation that got washed away before I had any gutters on the building.
As we add more dirt the grasses will be crushed and by keeping layers of rock on top when done I hope it will stop them from growing.
We plan on adding gravel to this area as well, but we still need to trench some water lines and figured we should wait until we are all done with underground tubing before laying down rock.
So the next phase of this project is to set up a series of rain barrels, attach them together and then trench out water lines to the 1/3 acre growing area. So we can pump rain barrel water over to the plants and the chick, ducks and bees on demand. Or at least the plants if the water is not safe for the animals.
