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.

3 more yards.

Okay, three more yards today. I’ve totally got the best pitching motion now, I stand beside the bed facing towards the center of the hood, and with my outside arm on the handle and inside arm choked by the head i canoe-paddle through the topsoil, tossing it behind.

Helped the fencing crew (a brother + sister team) and put 3 yards of topsoil down behind the retaining dam of Strawberry Ridge today.

Alright, drawing on further experience how and where to unload I managed to spread out a yard and a half of topsoil today and don’t feel half wiped. Key is figuring how to use torso twisting. To build up specific areas along the fence I’ve had an interim “transfer to garden cart” step, with this done and spillage along the way building up Strawberry Ridge I’ll be able to back up and just pitch it directly out of the bed to where it’s going (and then next load back up onto that and compress it with Darwin’s weight).

Could get up to 6 yards a day that way, which is nice because it’s been somewhere between 3.5 and 5 yards since I said there were a minimum of 6 left and there are now a minimum of 10 left.

3 or 4 times a year I’m sitting here and see a car drive down that path, which always throws you.

Spread out another yard and a half of topsoil. Darwin’s bed can take that (but hoo does the mass affect his performance) but really I think one yard a day is good.

The key is I can be a lot sloppier than mulch getting it out of the bed and into my barrow if I park Darwin so any spills are somewhere I want to fill in anyway.

Think the whole side yard might take as little as 6 more yards, had been expecting at least 12 more.

Okay got my first load of topsoil to fill in Blueberry Hill and Strawberry Ridge. It’s heavier, and I think I could fit a whole yard and a half of it in Darwin’s bed. That said I definitely could not do two loads of even a single yard in a day, this stuff wears me out. Not pain like from mulch pitching, I can’t even get the pitching shovel down to lever up much, but the kind of full-body wiped you get from swimming in water.

Okay I was kind of rushing to get stuff before the fence guy, cause while my existing one was in ruins there were two neighbors I was kinda letting down, things gonna be a bit more chill for the rest of the summer, next up is getting topsoil to fill out Blueberry Hill and Strawberry Ridge, and some more indoor cleaning.

Okay, today was rained in a while but outside of that did most of the last half-yard of mulch, some more ditch digging, and before it knocked out a petty fetch quest that had been on my to-do list for a while and arranged for a landscaper to come by tomorrow to talk over regrading my lower backyard.

Alright there was some medium-light rain – we’d had some drizzling when the air was thick with soot but this is the first real moisture since the real rainy season stopped, nothing like this last year – but the landscaping yard’s closed Sunday (well, only open in the morning for professional crews coming in to worksites) so no work planned to interrupt.

So, I started extending the ditch along the other edge of Strawberry Ridge – not digging it as deep, this is next to the trail and I don’t want anyone to step in and twist an ankle.

Also I prepared to stake retaining wire grid over part of the back retaining wall of Blueberry Hill and prepared some coconut coir to place there to try to hold on to any moisture that way, also I set up a weight bench and plate rack in the lower backyard, that’s gonna replace the basement for my weight stuff.

Okay went to transplant those annuals and realized it’s a thing where there’s like clusters of bulbs down there each supporting two leaves and a flower, and I took out one cluster one-by-one keeping their roots from ripping and I had like 11 reasonable-sized ones and one big one and I’m like okay what the hell do I do with this.

And I realize my trying to save these specific flowers is maybe old personality hoarder instinct and I can just get whatever plants I want at the nursery after I get the yard redone.

So fuck it, gonna scrap them. Also retrieved some wood from Strawberry Ridge that was too thick buried too shallow and cut it up for the side fill of Blueberry Hill.

So tomorrow planting the first blueberries, got some coconut coir to mix with compost for water retention in one site.

Alright, shifted a lot of wood that was exposed atop Strawberry Ridge but too thick to rot anytime soon over where they can be the core of next year’s leaves, then got to talking with my Cascadian tree guy behind neighbor and he turned me on to using coconut coir for where I want to plant the blueberries to retain water.

Started transplanting those annuals but I’ll need more potting soil; gotta do that before the leaves dry further and fall out and I can’t tell where they are.

Tomorrow might get to that but if the air’s too bad I’ll just go see Spider-Verse.

(The white spot is a bunch of rice I was getting rid of so poured on the tail end of Strawberry Ridge)

Thought someone was having a mental breakdown out in the right-of-way by Strawberry Ridge, but he was just playing with a puppy in Indonesian

Piles of branches being sorted for smashing prior to dumping on Blueberry Hill. The muscle tweaking feels better yet, but I’m gonna wait til coughing doesn’t hurt to take up the maul again

I could kinda use one of those push-roller things where the roller is an empty barrel weighted by filling with water to flatten down Strawberry Ridge, but that’s pretty bulky for something I have no further use for. Maybe if you could detach the roller and use it as a rain barrel on its own.

Strawberry Ridge further decaying in the rain, with some of the wood I’m gonna smash into smaller bits and bulk up Blueberry Hill with

Weird moment realizing the 20somethings jogging down the side yard path who stop to compliment me on Strawberry Ridge are seeing my grey beard and registering me as senior, in the sempai-kohai sense, and if I embrace performing that role they react to me appreciably better