It's was an OooLaLa kind of Weekend

Last weekend we decided to attack the problem of Lake Kathleen by digging a French drain.

Were you expecting a more exciting topic? Shame on you with your mind in the gutter :)

When it rains really hard - or when it rains for hours at a time without a break - the back patio fills with water. I'm not talking a little water. I'm talking about a few inches of water covering the concrete slab all the way to the porch steps. Enough water that little kids can run around splashing and have a ton of fun (I know that first hand). Enough water that little fish could consider it their personal pond (I don't know that first hand but I can see it being true).

Papa was going to have James do this job a couple of years ago but James had other plans for his hands so the job sat on hold.

Phase 1 is complete. Now we will let everything settle and then go back in with a final layer of pea gravel, dirt and grass. Jeesh that pea gravel is expensive - had I known how much it cost I would have grabbed a bucketful every time I went to the beach this summer!

BTW...don't know why Papa named it Lake Kathleen - maybe it was because I had fun splashing in it with the kids :) but nearly 10 rainy winters ago that is what Papa named it and we've called it that ever since.

He makes cutting the concrete with his diamond blade saw look easy but trust me, it wasn't.

 

After using a sledge hammer to separate the concrete along the saw line, he broke it up into manageable pieces with  a long crow bar. This was an enormously difficult job that required a few breaks along the way to give the arms and back a rest.

Ditch is dug end to end.

As it turned out, there actually was drainage in place when the house was built  nearly 30 years ago. It had stopped functioning long ago as it was packed 'tighter than a new memory foam bed-topper in a shrink wrap plastic bag' with dirt.

Oh bother. They installed the water lines for the automatic sprinkler ABOVE the drain. What a pain :/

Of course nothing got done without Supervisor Dakota getting all close-up and personal. 

The new drain is laid. Is it long enough? Does it have enough of a slope? Does it need tweaking in any way before I bury it? Measure twice, cut once is Contractor John's motto!

Trying to find the right fitting for the downspout proved problematic. 

No

Yes!

Time to fill in the French drain.

Bring on the rain...well, no rush really...but you know what I mean :)
All that's left is finish work on the rockery, grass seed, plantings and more pea gravel as it settles over the winter.