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new path

3 min read

photo looking down from our front steps; old stepping stones have been removed and there are five large lava rocks placed for a new pathway, but they are wet with rain; a staked line is stretched along the side of the nascent path

Back in 2024, we took some surplus lava rock paving stones we had around the compound and made a preliminary rock walk leading up to the front door. It was a quickie job, and looked great but it was too narrow and uneven to be permanent.

Back in January, we decided to actually buy some decent pavers and upgrade the path. I laid it out, we placed an order, we went through a lot of hassle trying to get the stones delivered (one driver refused to come up part of the road up the mountain), and when we finally got them delivered along with some sand, we had a long stretch of weather too rainy for landscaping work.

The weather has become somewhat drier, though the sand is still saturated. Living in a mist forest, it’s probably unrealistic to wait for the sand to dry out.

Today, I took one last look at the old path:

photo looking from the front steps to the old path; a staked line is visible to the right and there's a pile of dark wet sand in the background along with stacks of lava rock paving stones

I dug out a couple of the old stepping stones that had been there since at least the 1950’s plus some of the newer stones we placed in ‘24 and started laying the fresh new fancy stones.

photo looking toward the front steps; three paving stones are set in a bed of dark sand; a framing square and various yard implements are visible and there's a Thermacell mosquito repellent on the steps

It’s heavy labor, and I’m still pretty beaten down by my faceache and antibiotic therapy. It was easy for one of my neighbors to come by and distract me with working on the neighborhood emergency GMRS radio system and talking about old houses and healthcare. After he left, I got two more stones placed, after which I was rescued by rain.

—2p

addendum 2026-04-27T12:22-10:00 — turning the corner

I had help from the Hired Hand today, and we finished removing the old path and got a few more stones laid before we got rained out.

photo looking toward the front door; the stone path from the front steps is complete to where it turns toward the driveway; the old stone path has been removed; everything is wet

photo looking down from the front steps; the path is now complete to where it turns toward the driveway; everything is getting wet

addendum 2026-04-28T19:44-10:00

The morning was sunny after over two inches of rain. The Hand was scheduled to arrive at noon, but I didn’t think the weather would hold so I put in a few more ranks of stones while things were reasonably dry.

photo looking toward the front door from the driveway, showing three more ranks of paving stones on the walk

The Hand arrived at noon and it was drizzling, but he’s intrepid and we decided to see what we could accomplish. We got quite a bit more done before the weather drove us indoors.

photo looking at the new path headed toward the driveway; four or five more ranks of stones have been laid but things are looking very wet

The rain is now solid. Hard to say what’s to come in the next few days (the fantasy weather report sure won’t tell us) but we probably only have one or two half-days to go before all the stones are laid. After 2-3 weeks of use, I’ll probably have to pull up a few of the stones and adjust their height by adding or removing sand, but it’s looking pretty good.

addendum 2026-04-29T17:12-10:00

Rain off and on all day, but I still managed to get four more ranks of stones laid. I think there are only about five ranks left to do.

photo looking at the new path toward the front door with four more ranks of stones laid

addendum 2026-04-30T15:18-10:00 — the last rock

We had rain off-and-on today, but I managed to lay the last of the rocks. That was four tons of sand, dry, and I moved well over half of it, wet. Also several tons of stones. Ugh. They’re starting to change color as they dry out. There is still nuance to deal with. Specifically, after the stones dry and settle for a couple of weeks, I’ll likely have to lift some up and adjust the sand base to keep them all level.

Here’s how the path looks from on high:

photo looking down at the path from the loft; the rocks are of various shades as they're drying

And from ground level:

photo of the path from ground level

And looking back from the front porch:

photo looking from the front porch back along the new path

And here’s a video stroll along the path:

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