The "Path to Enlightenment"

    There once was a path.  A slippery path.  A muddy path that was treacherous whilst exiting the shower, after a slight rain, or exiting or entering the pavilion of "Enlightenment".  This path threatened to claim the clean bodies and able backs of any caught unawares while traversing it.  Especially mine at 9 at night while raiding the "Enlightened" pavilion goody bin.  After several near spills and one slightly wrenched back on one of those late-night goody runs, it was determined that something must be done!  And immediately!
  So, with the blessing of, "Yes, Yes!  Something MUST be done!" from the good god-fairy Tana, we set about rectifying the issue.  Chad went shopping!

Laying out pavers after digging gravel drainage

  After returning home with 20 brand new 300mm x 300mm cinder block pavers (approx. 12 inches for you American-types), and about 1/4 m2 of gravel from the local landscape supply, we were ready to start.

First we laid out our area to dig up for gravel drainage in the most offending area: Right in front of the step-down from the work area of the Woolshed.  This is a low spot where overrun from the shower, rainwater draining downhill from the Pavilion, and a puddle from the Woolshed all meet.  Danger!

Mud pit dug out and prepped for gravel

  As you can see, it also slopes downhill an toward the Woolshed, so you're looking at about 8 inches down on the side nearest the shower and 2-3 inches down on the furthest side.  In addition, we went ahead and laid out the pavers to try and get spacing and form.  Oh form... How do you form the form of the formless?

Experimental layout #218 with offset pavers from Pavilion

After filling in our drainage area with gravel and getting our layout finalized, we scribed the dirt along the edges of the pavers for our outline of where to dig.  And let the fun begin!

Lizzy digging away

Chad digging away

  "See Lizzy dig.  See Chad dig.  See Lizzy and Chad dig together.  Dig guys dig!"  And dig we did.  Amazingly enough this dirt was no where near as clay-filled as the area in back of the Woolshed.

Senior Foreman

General Planning Committee

 After dry-fitting pavers in the channel we just dug, we received the go ahead from the Senior Foreman and the General Planning Committee to begin permanent setting.  (No zoning laws or building codes were violated in the making of this path.  Maybe some worms.)

Setting pavers in a sand base clandestinely acquired from an undisclosed location.

Once the pavers were set, we back-filled with dirt excavated from the trench we cut, the re-seeded with grass seed to facilitate stability and aesthetics.  The path to the "Enlighten" Pavilion was complete!

From the rear of the Woolshed

From the Pavilion

  

Now to just En"light"en the Pavilion.

-Fin-