1 In Home & Garden

Backyard Refurb Part 2: Stone Pathway

Building a stone pathway the old fashioned way – dirt, sweat and heavy rocks.

A couple weeks ago, we decided to take action to keep the rest of our badly eroded yard from continuing its journey to complete barren-landscape status. Part 1 of this project was we had five trucks of dirt delivered and graded, adding about 6-8 inches over the hard-scrabble surface of barely existent tufts of grass.

Lesson learned number 1: The weather is not your friend. Immediately after having the dirt delivered, it began to rain. It was awful, and all the porches were nasty with clay-colored pawprints and shoe prints, and it was SUPER SLICK (I did NOT fall on my tail even one time!) But really, first-world problem, as I tell my kids. The dirt was well-graded, and we had no major runoff!

So last week, when it finally had dried up enough, we made plans for installing a stone path to the back steps.

I got a robot vacuum for Mother’s Day, but I feel like it’s looking at me accusingly with it’s little glowing eyes, saying, “I DID NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS!” every time I use it.

At least (when it’s complete) I can count on the HUMANS using it, and that will help keep more of the YARD IN the YARD and out of my house. I mean, I got a robot vacuum for Mother’s Day, but I feel like it’s looking at me accusingly with it’s little glowing eyes, saying, “I DID NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS!” every time I use it. (quick review: The robot works really well and picks up a lot of dog hair and dirt, even though I do still have to vacuum with my Dyson a couple times a week. Read: heck, YEA! Australian Shepherds DO shed)

I’m pretty thankful I didn’t have to get someone to help me get a pallet of flagstones for the path. We live on an old family farm, and sometime in the last five or six decades, someone had a lot of rock delivered and dumped in piles in various places, which has helped it age well. The local quarry produces the notable Tishomingo Stone, also known as Highland Church Stone, which is beautiful, but much lighter than the stone used on our house (see pic below). But, given exposure to the elements for years, it ages into darker shades, so these old stones are just right. You can see many structures built out of the same material in the 1930s by the CCC in Tishomingo State Park.

New Tishomingo Stone work done by the talented Poole contractors locally.

We wanted the walk to match the back steps, which were built in the 1950s by Kirby’s uncle.

Lesson 2: Not as young as I was when I built the other rock walls around the place. I’m so thankful that Connor is home a few weeks and is willing to do a lot of the heavy lifting, literally. He’s also allowed to drive the tractor, so he used the front loader scoop to get stones from three different locations around the property. Much different than when I built several of the structures around here using ME AND A LITTLE RED WAGON. That’s right. Just me. But that was 10-15 years ago! And my body is reminding me of that – but that’s why we had kids!

I remember when he was a toddler, running around in his little rubber boots that we used to imagine the days when he would be “useful” around the farm. The 2020, 6’4″ model has really outdone himself lately! He’s more than a pretty face and brilliant mind! And he’s helping his Mama. How much better can it get!

We used a string and line level to get a rough elevation for the path. Then, it was like a big puzzle, choosing from the assortment of rocks we brought in from the woods.

We will fill in gaps with sand to help with stability, but honestly, many of these stones are heavy enough, they are not moving! They are slightly elevated from the level of the surrounding ground, because next comes some manure soil additions, some tilling and leveling, and sod installation!