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:
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.
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