The Nest's Backyard Transformation

Our Transformation Of The Nest's Back Yard - A New Shed And Skidding It

When we first moved in, the back yard was pretty much nothing but dirt, covered by leaves, enclosed by a dillapitated fence, overgrown with bamboo in both corners. The hard to get rid of kind, but we managed to get most of it out of the way. We put the shed in sometime after that. Ann wanted it behind the carriage house but having just finished getting rid of the rest of the bamboo from replacing the fence, I didn't even want to think about taking out more bamboo there and having to repair or replace that section of fence too. It was easier at the time to just set it up between the big oak tree and the back corner of the house. The trees came out just after the 4th of July in 2016 and thankfully we didn't have to move it then.

(June 2016)
It wasn't long after that we did move it though. I managed to get that stand of bamboo out once and for all. When I started it last year about this time, I had to stop because there just wasn't enough room for all of it to come down all at once. I had long since moved it along the back fence and out of the middle of the yard. With the tree guys scheduled to come take out the trees just after the 4th of July, and not knowing if the shed would be in the way and have to move, I got busy taking out the rest of the stand. It was a lot of work to clean out all of that bamboo, and I don't think Rebecca was prepared for all of it to come out, including the stand on their side of the property line. Before I started I told them I planned on taking it all out so it wouldn't grow back.

I thought I was plain when I said that it was ALL coming out, so it wouldn't grow back. Well, at least it didn't grow back on our side of the fence. I have to continually trim it back now from growing over the fence from their side though. It exposed the fence in need of repair. It also left us with another HUGE pile of bamboo to dispose of. When I say dispose of, I mean cut into four foot lengths, bundle, and put out to the curb for yard trash pickup. I ended up piling this round together with what was left from last time against the back fence. The old fence had just been leaning against the tree where I left it last time. I removed it as I went, exposing more of the area of the property line between us and the neighbors.

I think this area was used as a dump site. The more bamboo I took out, the more junk I found. Old floor tiles, wire fence consumed by overgrown tree trunks, with the locust posts still wire stapled to it. Dead and decaying bamboo stalks that had already fallen. You name it, I was cutting it and moving it out of the way. My initial thought was to put the fence right on the property line, but it didn't take me long to realize that wasn't going to happen. I'd be lucky to just go straight back from the corner of the garage! I decided to scale back my effort along that property line and moved to the back line, where I found more wire fence, going around yet another locust post and heading down along the back of Dave and Rebecca's property line.

I took out what I had to take out to get the rest of that bamboo gone. I had a stand of maybe half a dozen left when Rebecca realized I had chopped it all out. All I could do was apologize at that point and ask if she wanted me to leave those last few standing. Sorry. With that done, it was time to get the fence back in place. I was able to use the spare panel we had left over from the other fence to replace the worst section of this fence. I had to put a new post in, and it was all I could do to find a place where there were no roots in the way. The old fence was really crooked and I wanted to square it up when I put it back. I did manage to do that, and now all that remains to do is notch the panel where the tree root is in the way. I defer that until another time and just pull the slat loose at the bottom to clear it for now.

That left me with all those roots to clean out. I had to clean out all of the roots this time, and it took forever with a mattock, only able to clear several clumps at a time before running out of steam. I was literally chopping the roots out of the ground, a little at a time. On this side, the bamboo shoots came right back up every time we cut them down, compared to the other side where we really didn't get any new shoots at all. It didn't happen all at once, but it did happen. There was no way I was letting that damned stuff grow back after all this work! I had a pile of roots that our German Shepherd pup loved grabbing and shaking and running around with. Every time I tossed another one into the pile, it was all I could do to keep him out of them!

That made enough room for the shed if we needed to move it. Well, turns out we don't need to move it for them to take out the trees, so it sits where it's at for now. Now we wait for them to take out the trees, and the rest of that bamboo! When they were cleaning up the backyard and all the debris from cutting out those trees, it donned on me to ask them if they would take all that bamboo too... And for a small fee they did! Hooray! After all that work cutting the stuff out, I really wasn't looking forward to having to cut all of it up and bundle all of the pieces and carry all of it to curb. Not having to deal with that was a huge help, and now we had plenty of room to skid that shed over behind the garage.

The next step was to level the ground and prepare the base for the shed floor. We had dug out and set in place over a dozen 8" square concrete blocks and set out a 2x4 grid frame of joists, then covered it with a ¾" plywood floor when we first set it up. Now we have to somehow lift the entire thing off of the floor, and move it from one corner of the yard to the opposite one, without it falling apart on us. Our plan is to skid it over using the extra 4x4s from the fence work we did. Once we get it moving, it goes smoothly, only having to stop to move and reposition the 4x4s. The hardest part is getting the thing lifted onto the 4x4s to begin with.

Ann and Nick are handling that part of it while I'm trying to stake out the new platform area and plant the concrete blocks in a duplicate pattern to the existing one. I have to stop every so often to help them move the shed some more. Then while they would reposition the 4x4s for the next move, I'd do more to prepare the new site. They end up making it all the way over there before I can get all the blocks in place and levelled. The closer I got to the fence, the more roots I ran in to. Some of them I was able to just chop trhough with the shovel. Others I needed the sawzall for. Ann wasn't pleased that it wasn't ready for the shed yet. I wasn't pleased either. She helps me to level the last blocks and Nick and I are able to move the seven foot square plywood base over the blocks.

When all is said and done, I'm thinking we should have put it closer to the garage, to have room to (eventually) curve the railroad track behind it, and Ann is ready to kill me... Not a problem, just need to add another row of blocks one joist away from the edge and move everything over. It only takes me another hour or so to get everything ready for the move. Thankfully I'm able to just pry under it to move it a little at a time until it's where we want it. Everything goes back in it and it's been there ever since! And now the 10' diameter track curves will fit nicely behind it.

Ever since I replaced the window on the side of the garage with a door, Ann wanted to put in a patio by it, to give us a place to sit and enjoy the back yard, and sod to keep the dirt to a minimum. We are now much closer to that goal. The next section details the installation of both features.