Sparky's Back Yard
Page 7
by Sparky

The Big Ladder Contest

August 9, 2003, Saturday morning.  The day started out pretty nice, and there was some painter guys working on the house next door.  One of the guys got out a Giant Ladder, that was about 25 feet long when he got done stretching it out and putting it up against the house.  Then he looked over at me sitting in my easy chair under the shade of the big Maple tree and shook his head.

Well, I am not one to let a challenge go unanswered, so I got off my butt and went into the house and drug out my special train track ladder that I use for checking on the mailbox to look fer suspicious packages.  I leaned it up against the big Christmas Tree that we have growing out in the back yard and then I climbed up into that big tree and looked back at the guy who was up on that ladder by then.

By my calculations, his ladder was about 9 or 7 times as long as he is tall, while my train track ladder is 11 times as long as I am tall, so that means that I won the contest, with ladder to spare!!

That's when him and the other guy that was also painting over there went and got 2 more ladders that weren't as tall, and put them up against the house and stretched them out.  Well, I can't argue with that, cuz that train track ladder was the only ladder I ken use so I guess they won the contest.

By that time it was getting pretty hot out, and I didn't want to be one of those guys that you read about in the paper, who got overheated, started seeing stars, and fainted in the yard.  My Powerful Steam Shovel isn't air conditioned, either, so I jest went into the house and kicked back and got a glass of root beer with ice and relaxed beneath the sealing see-ling ceiling fan and took a nap.

While I was taking the nap referred to above, Jim stayed outside and completed the retaining walls on the south side, as shown in photo #2 above in the photo album.

The big retaining wall blocks at the bottom are Pavestone blocks that we have all over the place in the back yard and along the east side of the house.  The next retaining wall is made up of small bricks that Jim made out of Saltillo tiles from Mexico.

Those tiles are cheap, about $1.00 per square foot, and they are made from very soft terra cotta clay that is easy to cut with that diamond blade in the special tile saw.  They're also very poor in quality, and the full tiles vary in thickness from about 1/2" to about 3/4", and many of them are bowed like the legs on a rocking chair, so I don't know how a feller would ever be able to put them down and make a reel floor out of them, but there are a lot of special designers that reely like things to be reel crooked, so they are pretty happy with them.

Gloria actually cut most of them tiles into little bricks, and by cutting them about 2" x 2-1/2", she was able to get about 30 little bricks out of each large tile.  Altogether, she cut up about 1,500 little bricks fer all the little retaining walls Jim needed to make.  To keep them from blowing away or falling over, Jim put them together with some waterproof wood glue.  The manufacturer of the Saltillo tiles says to only use them in areas that won't freeze in the winter, so Jim is hoping they don't jest fall apart next winter.

To find out more about them tiles, click below on these websites.  They also have some higher quality tiles that are pretty.

 Saltillo Tiles  or click here: More Saltillo Tiles 

Of course, you ken use any kind of tiles or veneer bricks that you like.  It takes quite a while to cut up those little bricks, and the wet saw spits a bit of dirty water out the back, so it is better to be done outdoors.  Jim also used his radial arm saw inside, with a dry diamond blade to cut up some retaining wall blocks, and the dust collector sucked up most of the dust, but it still made a mess, and it clogged up the filter bags with the fine stone dust, so that isn't a very good idea either.  Another possibility is to use one of those little tile cutters that works like a glass cutter, and they are affordable to buy so you don't have to work all at once, like when you rent a tool.

Photo 4 shows more of the wood cribbing completed on the east side.  This time Jim tried backfilling the wall with crusher fines, to try to better hold the wall and prevent it from bowing outward.

Well, as you ken see by the pictures above, specifically numbers 5 through 8, the deed has been done.  I sure hate taking several days off of working in the back yard jest to take a bath, but that's what happened.  Now I'm waiting fer my Super Hero outfit to get washed, cuz somebuddy noticed a little, tiny, speck of dust on it, and now it has to take a trip through the washing machine.  I'm glad I don't have to watch that ordeal.