Our new weather station is on the air.  It is not in it’s final location, and the wind data is not active, but I hope to get it going soon.

We have decided to start keeping Bees this spring. I have attended a couple meetings of the beekeeping club here in town, and read a few books on the subject. I have bought a hive, and have it ready for bees in Mid to late April.

We want to keep the bees in the back yard along the back fence but there are a couple of complications. First there is NO flat area anywhere in the back yard, and Second we want to keep the dogs from getting too close to the hive. In order to accomplish both goals, we need a small flat area, that we can put some fencing around. I borrowed dad's laser level, and surveyed a couple of spots, and consulted the aesthetics committee (Erica). We settled on a 12'x6' area along the back fence. The grade changes about 16 inches along the area, so my plan was to build a simple concrete block wall over the area, then fill with crushed stone. We will do something cool with rock and stepping stones to finish the area, then build a couple of flower beds to cover the cinder blocks. 

Last Saturday was the start of a weekend of beautiful weather, so it was a good chance to get a jump start on the project. My first step was to lay out, and dig a level spot for the back wall.

next, I laid in some crushed rock, compacted, and leveled the area.  We then dug the trench for the South wall, and laid in the rock for it.

We mixed up a batch of mortar, and laid the block for the back wall.  This was my first attempt at laying concrete block.  The wall isn’t perfectly straight, but it is not bad for a first timer.

Sunday, we went to church and the local home and garden show.  After we got home it was sunny and warm, so it was back out in the yard for some more work.  We laid the base course for the south wall, and all of the block for the second course on the two main walls.  The second course is much easier that the first, so the whole process went pretty quickly.  It looks pretty good.

The next steps are:

• dig the footings for the other two walls.  There will only be one course of block here
• drive rebar inside the blocks every few feet.  Hoping to get the rebar at least 1.5 ft into the ground
• Fill the block with concrete
• Fill and compact the area with crushed stone
• Develop a mounting system for the fence posts that are designed to go into the ground like stakes

We purchased a new tractor to help with some of our planned projects.  This is as small as you can get and still earn the title tractor.