Alright, walked down the slopes of loose dirt at the edges of Strawberry Field, ready to put some more there. I favor areas where I can park with the bed sloped down and just shove the first one or two bedloads of the day out as fast as possible and then get a last one to place more particularly; I think there’ll be an adequate demand for shoving down at the shallow edge of the ridge to balance that out.

Okay, I have the next two days of pitching planned and then I think I might actually rent a vibratory tamper to settle it all a bit.

3 more yards out, at least 8 topsoil and 3 4-in-1 left.

3 more yards out, looking good. Might be as few as 9 yards topsoil and 3 of 4-in-1 left.

Okay, 3 more yards out and it is fine the landscaping yard’s closed tomorrow because it is a rest day.

Possibly as little as 9 yards of topsoil and 3 or 4-in-1 (topsoil with fertilizer and amendments) left, which would be two and a half 2-day sets.

Alright, 4.5 more yards of topsoil, which is 3 bedloads. The twisting pitching motion exhausts my hip flexors, so after 2 I’m swaying my hips like I’m trying to pick up a whole ship of sailors and after 3 I’m walking like I did.

3 more yards and now time for at least one rest day.

Okay, 4.5 yards out today, new daily record. And the roughness with Darwin in getting power to the front wheels ground out by the third trip to and from the yard.

One effect of being out every day dumping topsoil (and using off days to take care of other things) is I haven’t had much time to just sit in my chair by the window and appreciate how far along it’s getting.

Okay, 3 more yards. Looking good, now I take a day off and then schedule to meet another reader passing through Portland.

Yeah I think tomorrow I’ll be good for more topsoil but after 2 more days I’m not sure just a 1 day break is good enough, I was still dissipating soreness this afternoon.

Psyched I’ve managed to work up a plan for the house where I’ve basically got to go out in the sun and work out at it all summer

3 more yards and looking good. 20-30 loads – which is to say 30-45 yards, or alternately 10-15 days – left.

Okay, I think topsoil at 3 yards a day, two days on one off two on two off will be good for the rest of the dry season, guess this Sat-Sun will be a two off to catch it up with the landscaping yard closed Sunday.

The strength built showing today, it was easier pushing the shovel head through the topsoil and extending the stroke to twist and dump at distance.

Combined with ambient humidity that kept the bedload sticking together as I scooped around it figured an even more efficient order to unload, that used gravitational potential energy to landslide out to the maximum possible.

Have an idea roughly where the 1st and 2nd piles for the next 5 work days are going, then it’s gonna be… well, we’ll see from there.

The area that was Strawberry Ridge is taking shape as Strawberry Field.