Paths Directed?

Man, did I get stuff done today. Washed half of the back of the house. Removed a 300-pound fragment of broken sidewalk. Planted shrubs. Then there is the key lime tree I already mentioned. I planted it, put manure around it, added gravel on top, and attached a wire mesh shield. And this stuff didn’t take much time. I finished quite some time ago. I managed to get out and get a flu shot.

Moving the sidewalk piece was an interesting job. I realized there was no way I would be able to right it and get it on a handtruck. It was close to a wall, and there was no way to get leverage. I thought I might use the rotary hammer to break it in half, but I didn’t want to blow $30 on a chisel bit. Then I decided to take my 3/4″ masonry bit, drill a series of holes across the concrete, and snap it in two.

Believe it or not, this worked. This concrete was unbelievably hard, probably because of its age, so it took maybe 30 seconds to drill each hole. Still, it was easy, because a rotary hammer doesn’t require much pressure. Soon I had about ten holes running across the fragment. I tried to pry up one end with a crowbar, but the fragment wouldn’t snap. I got a machinist’s hammer and a chisel and busted out the concrete between two adjacent holes, and when it went through, the whole piece broke in half. Not bad! I’m going to get a chisel bit; this job would have taken thirty seconds had I had one.

I managed to get each piece on a handtruck and put it on the trash heap. I hope the trash people can’t pick the fragments up. Their crane keeps digging out the ground in the trash area, and I need something hard and heavy there to keep them from turning the whole thing into a pit.

There is NOTHING like having tools. Without a handtruck, a rotary hammer, a hoe, a machinist’s hammer, and a big chisel, I would have been out of luck today.

The weather is fantastic. I think I’ll go stand outside and stare at my handiwork.