Sledge Hammer

When I was a kid I used to watch an afternoon tv show called Sledge Hammer. The hero, a renegade cop, had a .44 Magnum which he threatened to use on perps constantly, flashing it all the time. Of course, it being a kids show, every time he fired it, he just shot the gun out of someone's hand. Bulletproof vests didn't (publically) exist in the 80's so no body shots saved by a vest tricks. It was a kids show. Like Power Rangers or The Tick, just 10 years earlier.

I mention this because we're now at the stage of breaking apart concrete with on this wall project with a sledge hammer. And I have to say, this was one of the better skills perfected in college. You wouldn't think that operating a sledge hammer to break rocks is a collegiate activity, but I was a Geology major. Breaking rocks so we could study them was part of the deal. And operating an 8 pound sledge is hard work. Really, nuff said. This is what it looked like with the fence boards taken down. Notice the post in the center? Its leaning about 10 degrees to the left. That's supposed to be straight up and down.

Even more obvious here.

So we started digging. I moved ALL THESE ROCKS.

The hole behind the wall is 3 feet deep. The pile of rocks is about 2 feet high, and 5 feet across and about 15 feet long. The pile weighs as much as your car. The rocks are the size of an angry Korean girl's fist... so not that big, bigger than plums, smaller than apples. Not fun trying to coax those onto a shovel. The edge keeps bouncing off them. Had to get creative with a hoe and it takes two people to really get rocks moving out. What's worse is the gravel/rock also extends under the pile instead of merely being next to the wall. Perhaps that was a good thin, but with 10 inches of red dirt on top, I'm wondering if the contractors even knew what each other was doing? Anyway, finished removing rocks this morning. Notice the boards are somewhat straighter?

Keep in mind that the board in the foreground right is cut at a slant. The white line below that is the true level edge, and YES it is straighter without the weight of untold thousands of pounds of river rock pushing it out. Dad, who is 71 but too stubborn to pay a contractor to do this, proceeded to chip away at the concrete holding the rotted out fence posts with a hammer and chisel. I went after it with a full on 8 lb sledge hammer. Then Dad got the brighter idea of using an air-chisel, which works far better and less painful too. This is the result with the new fence post in the hole:

Second (middle hole) still in progress:

Note the wood broken off? Its mush from water damage. That was pressure treated lumber and it lasted only 14 years thanks to some errors in drainage from a well meaning homeowner next door. Oh well. Sure, its backbreaking labor right before its supposed to start pouring rain, but what can you do? Life is filled with Necessaries rather than Optionals.

UPDATE: Finished digging out the concrete and rotted post. Put new posts and fresh concrete in here:

Post is MUCH straighter now.

See? Better. We want to let this setup another day before we throw all those rocks down into the hole again. They were hard enough getting up there in the first place.After a trip to the lumber store and a few hours of work, we cut and installed the fence stringers. These are redwood so should last better than the original fir boards.

Bit by bit, day by day, we get closer to done. This is how you do it when one of you is 71 and the other has a bad back.
UPDATE: So we shoveled the rocks in Sunday afternoon. Monday morning we put up fence boards so here we are, mostly done.

This was the work of over a week. Thousand plus pounds of rock moved. Boards shifted. Holes dug. Lumber fitted. Labor was hard, but its done. No more worries of the wall and fence falling down the next time it rains hard. Dad says he hopes it will outlast him so he doesn't have to deal with it again. I hope he's right.


And I got paid for the labor, at a good rate. The neighbor lady, a grandma, insisted and would be insulted if I didn't take the check. So now I'm apparently worth $25/hr. I will have to put this on my taxes. The wall is solid and will not be falling over in the coming rains. Meanwhile its 79'F and we're celebrating completing the project with Zinfandel (Ravenswood) and steaks. With a sore back, yeah, I can get behind that.