Sidewalk Plan

What I accomplish this Friday and Saturday I will report on this coming Monday. Let us at least look at the plan. The plan began years ago when I built the house. As you can see from the following picture the old sidewalk seems to end in front of where my tractor is picking up a load of soil.

After some grunt work on my part I finally got some of the forms in and prepared to pour concrete. The first piece was poured on Saturday and reported on in Monday's entry.

I am hoping to pour two five foot sections on Friday and then two more on Saturday. To accomplish that need to pick up six more sacks of ready mix for Friday and twelve more Friday afternoon for Saturday. I need one sack for each foot of sidewalk. If I pour twenty feet next Friday and Saturday, I will need twenty sacks.

The picture shows the next five feet is ready for concrete. The next five feet still need to have rebar and wire put in place and the form at the next five foot mark. I will probably do that some morning before breakfast, before going to the library at the CCC for the day. How much I do on Saturday depends on how hot it is on Friday. I will try to take time on Friday to get some detail shots.

After the sidewalk is in I have work to do on both sides of it. At the left end of the black soaker hose there is a high pressure water line. I plan to attach a "Y" to it and two pressure reducers for two soaker hoses. The one in the picture will go along the edge of the foundation, under black plastic on which will be placed an inch or so of colored pea stone. This is an Arizona landscaping design I brought to Texas, which works very well here. A few shrubs will be placed through the plastic and will pick up enough water from the soaker hose, which will be on a central timer. The second soaker hose will go under the sidewalk to the left and back down the foundation in the other direction. That hose never got put in when I landscaped before.

Down the right side of the sidewalk I will hand dig a twelve inch deep trench for a water line and sprinkler heads to water a strip of grass along the sidewalk. A band of green around the house keep everything stable and maintenance free. It also looks good. The grass at the end of the sidewalk is already on a sprinkler and is doing well. The grass along the new sidewalk is not doing so well.