Diggin' it

Ended up looking around on the net trying to find out how to survey my backyard and find the relative elevations based on the level of the dirt at the house. I had a really hard time finding anything that wasn't just for surveying property lines, but I did find that transit levels could do the trick but are basically just a laser pointer with a level on it. So I got the idea to use the rotary level I have, which you can't see for nothing outside, and use it like a transit level by turning it way down where it didn't rotate and using the large ruled straightedge I have to compare the height at the laser to other places in the yard.

It turned out to be a real pain to get it lined up right, to keep it level and to keep walking back to it every time I wanted to change the "direction" I was measuring, since it was only pointing it one direction at a time. It got a little easier when Aimee was able to come out and move it around for me as I checked different places in the yard.

I was able to identify that from the level at the house where the dirt is a little below the sheeting under the siding, the railroad ties along the back fence raised beds are about 6 1/2 inches higher and the ground 9 feet out from the south side of the house, where the raised planting beds will be next to the deck, is about 3 inches higher.

about 3 inches high at the line where the raised planting bed will be at the end of the deck that will be between the house and the planter along the south wall of the family room.

6 1/2 inches too high at the back fence planting beds.

There is the laser level at the southwest corner of the family room.

There will need to be a slope from where the level is out to the 9 foot mark where the trench is, but there is just too much dirt to remove if I try to level the whole yard from that point, so after talking with Aimee we decided to put a step up at that 9 foot point (at the same line as the end of the planter, ie extend the trench in the picture out to the left to the nearer stake in the ground). This will only be about a 6 inch step up to the grass and will basically mean I won't have to remove much dirt from the main grass level; I will just need to add about 3 inches of good dirt and level it out after tilling up the top layer of what is there after tilling up leveling and compacting the dirt that is currently there.

There other project that I got done just before coming in for dinner was to extend the pavers in front of the shed so that the dirt didn't spray the shed when it rained. There is a little more grading around the shed that needs to be done, but with it being a good 2-3 inches above where the grade around it is probably going to end up it should keep water from pooling around the shed or getting in it at all.

I am feeling more and more confident about our plans for the back yard now and with them coming together a little bit, it is getting kinda exciting. There have been changes along the way as we have had to adapt to difficulties or to make the work more manageable, like putting in the step-up in to accommodate the higher than expected lawn area, but it is starting to come together. There are still a few things that we have to figure out, namely the main part of the deck and how to possibly figure out how to place the pier blocks precisely enough that the deck will be stable and flat forever more.

On we go.