Every house has its story. What's yours?

My wife and I decided yesterday would be a good day to do something with the big pile of dirt we had by the back of our house before winter arrives, which it does suddenely here in Sweden.

I'd been busy the last couple of weeks shoveling the pile down to backfill where we had just put in drainage around the house. Whilst backfilling I kept in mind that there would be settling over the winter and I anticipate that I'll have room for about 6 inches of sand so I can maneuver the slate around how I want it.

We'd reached the point where a passing comment by yours truly, "I could build a stone wall around here," blossomed into a reality. Whee!

Wifey assisted with backfilling dirt/clay on the backside while I lugged and positioned stones in place. Not much play-by-play here, but I must mention that for the first time in my life I actually had sweated enough that sweat was dripping off the brim of my baseball cap.

Six hours later (with a lunch break and a couple kid moments included) we had a finished product:

Yep, that's a little seat we made (big enough for two, too).

I'll build some wooden steps up from the slate porch to a platform by my office door and also some wooden steps up to the top of the wall level.

What I plan to do next fall is build a ground-level deck on the top section where the wall is.

Not bad for a day's work, although my back and legs are paying the toll today.