September 18th~20th

On the 18th, we had another five bulk bags delivered, this time containing building sand. I needed space in the back garden for the sand, so I began moving paving slabs closer to the area where the path was to be. I watched a Youtube video about a guy who laid a path with recycled paving. He washed them afterwards, only to find out that some were grey while others were green. Thankfully for him, by chance, they were in an alternating pattern! I decided it would be best to jetwash mine before laying them! So far, I've got eighteen done so far.
 

Another move to make more space for sand was to finish another bag of river gravel on the railway ballast edging. I laid a strip of weed membrane on the edge of the earth embankment, to create an area free from plants between the proper ballast area and the embankment. This was then filled with river gravel. This strip will be easier to clean of dead plant matter, than digging around in the main ballast.

  
September 25th

On the 25th, I began working on the foundations for the path, using the "Earth-crete" method. Using my power drill, my new tool worked really well to break up the soil. Due to the amount of stones and the remains of a brick wall under the soil, the nails slowly bent and eventually snapped off. However, the remaining part of the tool I made still worked very well on its own, to break up the soil. After loosening up the clay soil, I shovelled several scoops of building sand into the soil and mixed that in with the drill. This helped to break up the clay further. After that, I mixed in the cement until the earth was a uniform colour.

The next step was hard work. I bought a ten pound tamper to pound down the earth to compact it and flatten it. The earth was sticking to the end of the tamper to some degree, so I ended up with a plastic rubble sack on the earth andtamping it down through the bag. I got an area large enough for four paving stones prepared. I need to lay these four slabs before I can go any further, in order to work out the height of the earth preparationfor the rest of the path towards the trailer hard stand.

I ended the day by painting my new railway sign in black Hammerite.

September 26th

Much of the 26th was spent moving sand from the front garden to the back, but during some rest breaks, I began painting the white lettering on the crossing sign. Due to the need to rest my hand on the sign in order to paint the white without going over the edges, letters were done a few at a time. By the end of the day, the lettering and edging had all received two coats of white.
   

Sept 26th ~ Oct 2nd

With the railway crossing sign paint baked hard on the evening of September the 26th, it was screwed to the gatepost on the 27th ( I feel safer in the garden now that the sign is up!). 

I spent the rest of the day moving building sand from the drive to the back garden. On the 28th, the first three full paving slabs had their edges cleaned up of old mortar ( they are reclaimed slabs ). The first three were laid on a bed of mortar, which lies on top of my earthcrete, which by this time was very hard.
The last slab couldn't be full size, due to a trunk from the hawthorn hedge, which was a bit too close. A large amount of the hedge sprouts out from this trunk, otherwise I would have just cut it out. I made use of one of the broken slabs, cut to a two foot square slab and then two other smaller pieces cut to fit around the trunk, leaving a bit of growing room. That was as far as I could go without more ground preparation.

On the 29th, I spent the day with the power drill, breaking up the clay soil, to around 4 inches deep. Building sand was mixed in next, to further break up the clay and to dry it out. That was followed by mixing cement into it and tamping it down. The ten pound tamper took about ten strikes to pack down one square foot. One hundred pounds lifted for every square foot flattened. My arms and shoulders still haven't forgiven me. Once an area large enough for another four paving slabs was flattened, it was lightly watered a few times over the next few hours, to cure the earthcrete.

The 1940s show at the Royal Navy Museum in Hartlepool gave me a couple of days off hard work, but I was back out today. The next four slabs had their edges cleaned up and were lifted up against the fence until the mortar was mixed. More sand was barrowed from the front garden and then the mortar mixing began. These four slabs bring the path almost up to the trailer hardstanding. I've already removed the wooden shuttering that supported the hardstanding concrete, but need to bury the observatory armoured power supply cable along the edge, before preparing any more paving foundations. So eight slabs laid, only another twenty eight to go. The rest of the day was spent giving the laurel hedges another haircut.
   

My new diamond cutting wheels make easy work of cutting the 70Kg concrete slabs. One needed cutting narrower to clear the plastic tube containing the observatory power cable. I marked the cut line along a piece of wood using the small grinder, before cutting it with the 9 inch wheel. On the 8th, I finished laying the last two slabs that bring the path up to the garage. That makes 36 feet of paving laid so far. 
 

On the 9th, I spent several hours cutting back the hawthorn hedge and the ivy growing at its base, where I wanted my path. The following day, I began breaking up the clay soil. My drill attachment kept buzzing on some bricks, buried a couple of inches below the surface, so out came the trowel and I started digging them out. Then a few more, and more, all the way along the hedge. This digging bricks out continued into the 11th. I ended up with quite a large pile. They would be useful however, for a wall repair along side the driveway.

My back was aching, so I turned my attention to a job I could do standing up, the wonky wall. Since we moved house, one section of the driveway wall has had a significant bow and lean to it. This was caused by a branch and the roots of an old tree in my neighbour's garden. I'd warned my daughter to keep away from it, as it didn't look particularly stable. Using the 9 inch diamond cutting wheel to cut the mortar, I was able to separate the large capping stones, after which, the bricks were literally falling out. My neighbour came out after hearing the noise and then gave me a hand to dismantle the wall - by hand. 

I've taken a few walls down over the years, normally requiring a lot of hammering a bolster chisel to break out the bricks from the mortar. I think this wall was built with lime mortar, as it was very white and powdery, allowing the bricks to be pulled off by hand, many with no effort. How the wall stayed standing for so long is a mystery. By the end of the day, the wall was down, including part of a bodged concrete and brick pillar at the right end, that at one time must have had a wooden gatepost attached to it.

October 12th

I got sand mixed into the soil from the end of the observatory to the join between the lawn and railway. Next, two paving slabs worth of foundations had cement mixed in and packed down before light rain stopped work.

October 13th

The remains of the concrete pillar was brought down by slicing it into small sections which could then be chiseled out. My neighbour had also dug out a lot of the soil around the tree and had cut all of the upper branches off. I tried to do some more foundations, but the soil was too wet from the rain.

October 15th

I had a rest day on Saturday the 14th and got back to work on the 15th. The day was spent on the path foundations all the way to the lawn/railway join. Using the 10 pound tamper was exhausting, but I got about another 16 feet of the foundations prepared.

October 16th

The 16th was mostly about laying paving. After sorting the MOT on one of the cars, all the tools came out and I carried seven paving slabs down to the hedge. Much of the rest of the day was spent mixing mortar and laying the slabs.