With the garden complete and everything growing, I turned my attention back towards the cistern area of the yard. Some brick repointing was part of the overall plan for that space and I figured I might as well knock that out - it's messy work - before I got the cistern fully demo'd and buttoned up. 

The brick that REALLY needed to be repointed was under the 2 bedroom windows, primarily due to water infiltration around the window sills and subsequent moisture in the wall. The area under the left window, which I redid a couple weeks ago, was mossy and the mortar was rotten, but the wall was otherwise still fairly solid. 

The arched section bowed out of the plane of the rest of the wall by about 1/2" and I knew that once I started raking out mortar, the bricks would be pretty easy to pull right out of the wall. 

Those areas where the mortar looks a little smoother and flatter than the rest of the mortar, that's where somebody repointed previously. Given the shallow depth of the repointing and incorrect mortar (way too hard), it wasn't a real surprise that the wall cracked and delaminated regardless.

As I suspected would happen, it didn't take long to pull the arch apart.Those arches are super strong when fully assembled and working as a unit, but once a single brick gets loose, the whole thing becomes a house of cards. Also, as suspected, the inner wythe's mortar was garbage as well. 

I was surprised to discover that the wall is 3 bricks (wythes) thick; every other wall I've gotten into so far is only 2 bricks thick. Once I got about as many bricks pulled out of the wall as I could before things got sketchy, I started repointing the exposed part of the interior wythe and then resetting the exterior bricks. 

Before I started resetting the arch bricks, I ran a little self-adhesive flashing over the top of the basement window. The bricks sit on that, and I'll replace the whole window before too long so it was kinda moot, but you really don't want bricks and mortar sitting right on top of the wood; the masonry has a way of wicking moisture and if it's in contact with wood, the wood will rot eventually. The flashing provides an impervious separation between the wood and the masonry.

I also used a little house wrap to do the same thing where I didn't have enough space to finagle the sticky flashing.

Once the arch was reset, the work went quick. Unfortunately, I kept finding bricks that came out of the wall way too easily and I wound up having to reset about a dozen bricks above the arch.

I eventually removed mortar from every joint in this little section of wall. Mortar removal is a lot like using a nail gun...fun to pull the trigger, but pretty easy to shoot 17 nails when only 3 or 4 are needed. Sometimes I get a little carried away with the mortar removal but...if I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it. 

The repointing effort turned out pretty well. No more vibrating wall, no more cracked joints, no more delamination. I still need to reattach the coaxial internet cable, but that can wait for a minute. ​ 

The mortar is different colors due to one side having been curing several weeks longer than the other, but it'll even out in a few days. And the best part? Aside from this section of wall being super solid, I'll NEVER have to repoint it ever ever ever again.  

Now I can get back to the cistern, finish 'er up, and then replace a little section of fence...

A couple weekends ago I started building a raised bed garden. The goals for it were to 1, be squirrel-proof, 2, be big enough to reasonably contain all the seedlings I'd already planted indoors, and 3, be not so large that it would eat up a dumb amount of the yard. This was the design I came up with (a modified version of something I saw on the internet): 

As usual, I had my trusty helper supervising the work every step of the way.

Getting the hardware cloth installed was easily the worst part of the job, and my first plan of attack didn't go real well. Long story short, I ended up adding 2x4s on top of the 2x8s to both raise the bed elevation a bid and give myself a little more surface area to staple the hardware cloth to. Unfortunately, the change in installation plans meant I didn't have enough hardware cloth so I called it quits for the weekend.

Since I had the bulk of the job under control, I decided to start the following weekend by taking the dogs out so Roscoe could try out his new wagon. He was my hikin' sidekick for about 12 years, and now that his back two legs are essentially paralyzed he's stayed home when I take Freckles on outdoor excursions (his choice, not mine). I hate that he can't walk, but the truth of the matter is that over his 14+ years of life he's gotten every last mile outta his legs that he possibly could, and not too many dogs - or people - can say that. 

But I got to thinkin', which is always a dangerous endeavor...he can't NOT go on the hikes, he just can't WALK during them. Hence, the wagon. I wasn't sure if he'd be chill in it or if he'd be all squirmy and scared, but he handled it like a champ.   

We went out to Glencoe, MO, to a trail we've hiked several dozen times over the years. It's pretty flat and relatively smooth, which I figured would make the wagon-pulling halfway easy. It was a good 4-mile adventure, complete with me wiping out in slimy river mud while trying to carry Roscoe down to the Meramec. I even let Freckles, the 75-pound tank of a little girl, pull Roscoe for a minute; she didn't hesitate nor did she have any problems. 

After the hike I picked up more hardware cloth and got back to work on the garden. 

Getting all the little seedlings planted took a minute, but it all kinda came together eventually. 

So that's the garden. Peas, bell peppers, broccoli, carrots, basil, and 1 cantaloupe plant just to add a little chaos to the mix. All organic, all heirloom. We had some insane wind for 2 straight days after I got everything planted and I'm not sure the peas survived, but that's how this farming stuff goes...🤣  

Due to the recent rain, and because my work schedule is a little funky this week (off Friday, NOT off on Easter Sunday), I decided to skip the cistern work this weekend. The ground over there is nothing but mud, and I used Friday to do a bunch of adult stuff, like an oil change for the truck, I needed to get done.

One of those Friday tasks was going to one Home Depot to buy some ramps for my truck bed, and another task was going to a different Home Depot to rent an aerator. I don't like to patronize Home Depot, but sometimes...ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Even with the ramps, getting that almost-300-lb machine in and out of the truck was no fun. 

I was born with somewhere in the neighborhood of 18x more stubbornness than the average individual. This has been both a blessing and a curse. 

The cistern story, at least the part where I'm involved, starts a couple years ago. A funky little depression I'd noticed in the brick paving behind the house led me to pull up a couple bricks and stick a shovel in the ground. 

Anyhow, up until yesterday, that section of the yard - and cistern opening, a 24" diameter brick-lined hole - looked like this: ​

There's a litany of projects to be undertaken in this part of the yard and I didn't want to deal with the cistern until I was ready to tackle everything else, so I left it as-is. Until a couple days ago. 

On Saturday I pulled up all the bricks in that part of the yard, and foolishly had high hopes for fully excavating the cistern over the next couple weekends. See those bricks in the left center of the pic? That's the cistern opening.

I knew there were tree roots growing across the top of the opening. They're the reason I didn't cover the opening or do anything to keep something from falling in; everybody that lives here is much too large to fall through that web of roots.

My goal was to find a spot outside the cistern, dig down 3 or 4 feet, and get a good look at the structure from its exterior. I can't explain why, maybe it's my engineering background, maybe it's my infatuation with old school craftsmanship, but I wanted to see the thing before I demo'd it.

I felt like the greatest chance of dodging oak tree roots while digging was to dig on the side of the cistern opposite the tree, so I cleaned up the cistern opening a bit and started digging in that direction. And of course, tree roots. Everywhere.   

I dug about as far as I could and then tried a few other spots, trying to avoid tree roots. No luck. The oak tree roots crisscross and zigzag all over the place. I tried, and I tried, and I tried - remember that stubbornness comment I made to start things off? - but I just couldn't find a patch of dirt without tree roots. 

Also, due to recent rain, the ground was super saturated and digging up nothing but mud pretty much sucks. I started to question how much digging I really wanted to do, and how much room I realistically had to do so. It's pretty cramped over in that part of the yard and having the energy to dig up many cubic yards of dirt is one thing; having a place to dump it is another. 

After about an hour of walking laps around my little excavation while rationality and stubbornness - I did NOT want to give up on my original plan - waged war against each other in my head, I decided to resort to the backup plan. I decided to collapse the top of the cistern, fish out all the brick, and make the thing safe to work in.

I told myself that, at the very least, if I wasn't gonna get to see the exterior face of the cistern wall, I was at least going to remove all the dirt from inside the cistern and see its bottom (and maybe some rad leftovers from the 19th century). I went inside, grabbed my big pry bar, and figured I'd have the cistern's lid popped apart in no time. In terms of this line of thinking, mistakes were made.

Many, many mistakes.  

I underestimated the cistern's strength by comical proportions. Just getting a couple dozen bricks removed from the cap was WORK. I've repointed a lot of the brick and limestone throughout the house and about 50% of the time, the existing mortar is absolute trash. Somehow, the mortar used in this structure, below grade and subject to dirt and water every bit as much as, say, the side of the house, is stupid solid. 

After a couple hours I had at least widened the opening enough that I could safely stand inside the cistern and work from there, but the big pry bar wasn't cutting it. I went inside, grabbed a hammer and cold chisel, and figured - again, ridiculous amounts of incorrectly - I'd plow through the rest of the cap in no time. 

Truth is, a demo hammer would have been the perfect tool for the job but I don't own one, it was too late in the day to go rent one, and I didn't want to drop $800+ on a tool for a job this small. So I kept banging away with the hammer and chisel. 

Once I got enough brick and dirt removed to where I could crouch down and halfway comfortably see the walls of the cistern, I noticed the inlet pipe. The other end of it is very much sticking up above ground at the corner of the house where the existing downspout drops from the gutter. 

I also noticed one of Freckles' footballs; she must have dropped it down there while chasing squirrels or, more likely, the resident neighborhood possum. 

I swung that hammer until my arm started cramping up and my swing-and-miss rate got a little embarrassing. Once you start hitting your chisel-holdin'-hand more than the chisel, it's time to call 'er a day. 

I still have a couple courses of cistern cap brick to get rid of but I got a lot done this weekend. That said, I'm going back and forth on my plan to remove the dirt from inside the cistern.

I haven't done much rehab work lately. The weather has been cold and generally yucky, I've had to travel a bit for the new job, I've been sick a couple times - and I never get sick - and taking care of Roscoe as best I can is still a fairly time-consuming endeavor. 

And if I'm gonna mention Roscoe I gotta mention Freckles; she's become quite fond of Tower Grove Park (I think this will be "her" park, the same way Lafayette Park was always "Roscoe's"), and I spend quite a few hours taking her there every week, playing fetch when the crowds and park ranger aren't around, and doing my best to teach her to leave the squirrels alone, a battle I'm not sure I'll ever win.   

All that said, I've gotten a few things done lately and I'm gearin' up for a whole lot more.

A couple weeks back I got some vegetable seeds started inside. I'm gonna take a crack at a small container garden this year, despite the yard and it's immense amount of full shade presenting some challenges. Also, I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to this gardening nonsense. 

I still have a few more seeds to plant: broccoli, carrots, and cantaloupe. Before long, they'll all get moved outside, and I'll have to figure out how to keep the squirrels from devouring all of it.

I got bored a couple weekends ago and decided to resume repointing basement limestone. When I first moved in I was pretty good about tackling it a little here, a little there, and then I moved on to other things and never came back to it. The mortar removal is zero fun, especially the spots where it's still fairly solid, but getting new mortar back in the wall is oddly satisfying.

And a couple weekends before that, I got out the big ladder, climbed up the side of the house, and investigated what was hiding behind the sheet metal attic vents (not original). I had a suspicion that the original cast iron grilles were back there and sure enough, they are. 

They're not real practical in terms of allowing all manner of critters and rain into the house, but I'm thinking I can come up with a way to leave the cast iron grilles exposed AND prevent the infiltration of rodents and water...I just haven't come up with anything real great just yet. 

And then there's the big job, or massive collection of small jobs really, I'm hoping to start this weekend.

Behind the house, between the house and the garage, is no-man's-land. It's been a dumping ground for stuff I don't have any other place for because it can't be seen by any of the neighbors and between the full shade and number of obstacles over there - downspout, a/c condenser, cistern, oak tree, etc. - it's not a real useful part of the yard.

But it looks like hell and the wood fence is a stiff breeze away from falling into my neighbor's yard. 

Over the next handful of weekends, I want to redo the whole space, starting with removing all the bricks that pave the entire area.

The challenge here is not having a good place to put all the bricks; I already have several large piles of brick and limestone chillin' in the yard. 

With the bricks gone, the next step is to excavate the cistern - which means more bricks - and ultimately filling in the hole where the cistern will get removed from. There is a 100% chance some of the oddball and broken bricks will get buried in the hole (the cistern is 8' in diameter and at least 2.5' deep -- it'll be a sizable hole).

Somewhere along the way I want to repoint the limestone foundation wall back there, but only the spots that need it...and there are plenty of 'em. I also want to rework the downspout a bit and get 'er snugged up to the house. It's the only downspout for the entire roof, so it carries a LOT of water at times and it's critical that it works the way it's supposed to.

Once that's complete, I need to figure out a good way to get rainwater from the downspout over to the main part of the yard, which will be a giant challenge due to the silver maple that kinda blocks the path I'd like to take with some underground piping. Right now, the downspout more or less empties into a clean out for the sanitary sewer - a setup done by the previous owner - which you're not supposed to do.

When I'm finally done making a mess back there, I'll put up a new fence, get the area graded the way it needs to be, and then figure out some sorta ground cover. I need that area to absorb some water so I don't want to paver the whole thing, but the shade back there means not much will ever grow real well so I can't plant much of anything either. And then there's the oak tree leaves and acorns to contend with; whatever I do to cover the ground, it's gonna be something that will allow for halfway easy cleanup. 

I've got 6 weekends set aside for all the work. I think I can pull it off, but between weather and dogs and work...ya never know.