Buying A Canvas Would Have Been Cheaper

In the beginning there was the backside of my house.


There were also some water drainage issues.


Even though it hadn’t rained here in over ten days, there was still a backup of water in the existing drainage lines.


Bush and small tree roots had punctured the lines and now water was running down our foundation wall.


I cleared away over three feet of dirt and soil by digging steps.


I separated the soil from the dirt and these piles grew very large!


The Robins thought that I was digging them a fast food worm restaurant. They were great company while I dug and dug.


And dug and dug…


No matter how busy I get, I always try to regard the world around me. Sometimes, while I’m digging, I’ll look up to see a flock of birds flying by, or I’ll spend a moment looking at a fun shaped cloud in the sky. Yes – even the shadow of my Maple tree on the back wall of bricks has a certain artistic value that I like to appreciate while I’m working.


Finally, after three days of five-hour shifts ‘The Trench’ is finished. Soon, I’ll be able to paint my wall mural! But first, I’m going to have a little rest…


… so I can watch the rainstorm pass overhead.


I’m glad that it didn’t rain until after I had finished my painting. After less than one hour the black rainclouds had moved on.


I needed to make sure that my canvas was clean, so I used a wire brush to scrub all the dirt off my wall.


I also had to smash away some of the parging that had become loose because of the water drainage problems.


Then a ‘concrete patch’ was used to seal all of the walls cracks and holes.


As you can see, all of this work has me rather excited! As soon as my repairs have had time to dry I’ll be able to cover the entire wall with a sealant paint.


This special waterproof sealant will become the canvas onto which I will create my greatest art achievement.


So… my masterpeace has begun!


Ta-da! In less than one hour my greatest artwork has come to life!!!! It just took me four and a half days to prepare.


Now that the painting was complete it was time to fill “The Trench” back in. I put in the proper type of drainage lines and surrounded the one side with lots of gravel. I put sand on the other side of the weeping tile to protect the foundation wall. Then I got a really heavy peace of metal and tampered this fill nice and flat.


I thought that the texture that was created looked pretty cool!


After each new layer of sand or soil is added, I use a rake to shape the layers kinda like triangles, so that the slopes of each layer will also assist in proper water drainage.


When I talked about sorting the fill into piles of sand or soil, I never mentioned anything about a pile of gravel. I’m wondering if any of you have been able to guess where the gravel came from?


Shhhh! Don’t tell my wife! She’d kill me if she knew what I’ve done to our driveway!!!

Jim

PS – Sometimes, when there is a hard and laborious task at hand, the work becomes enjoyable when three simple rules are followed…

1) Learn something – I learned a lot about shovels.
2) Have fun – I created an artwork that may never be seen by human eyes again. I think that’s hilarious!!!
3) Be peaceful – No rocks were harmed in the creation of this artwork.