Moving a mountain

Well it's a small mountain as far as mountains go! It's no small feat though, considering we're only moving it with a wheelbarrow, spade and mattock. Here's one of the spades in question:

This is leaning against the wall we're chiseling back. I love how all the colours of the soil are revealed. You can see some black charcoal from a past bushfire, red clay, and even the beginnings of sandstone. We've hit a few rocky sections, so our second wall project may be finished a little later than we thought. We're gradually making progress.

Here's a picture taken from above the wall. The wheelbarrow is next to the mini mountain we're bashing away at. This is also what our front yard has looked like for a few months now. Actually, it's been this way since about December last year. You can just see the first wall in this picture, which is a light colour. We're building a ramp to access the upper level, which the three walls will partially retain.

And what of all the extra soil - where is that going? Out the back of course!

We're using the excess soil to build another ramp to the backyard. There's a very steep decline and this extra ramp will make it easier to get there - as well as support the soil holding up the house.

These are just early photos, so probably don't make a lot of sense right now. Like everything here it's always a work in progress. I love moving dirt though. Something very primal and invigorating about a day's hard labour. You know what sleep is by the time your head hits the pillow.