This was pretty much straight-forward excavation. Break up the dirt. Separate the rocks from the dirt. Haul the dirt in a wheelbarrow to a storage pile, to use elsewhere later. Put the rocks in a pile to use to fill under the walkway once it is defined by the two walls on each side.
It took a couple of days.
But now we have the digging done.
The one thing we had to be very very careful about is the irrigation supply line. This is a large white PVC pipe which supplies the water to all the sprinkler system zones. This supply pipe is attached directly to the city water supply (thru a back-flow valve). If we were to nick it, we would have a flood of water gushing from it (we've done this elsewhere). But (so far) we've avoided problems so far. This supply line starts at the street and goes all the way around the house.
Once the digging is done, we can then frame and pour the concrete.
To help protect the irrigation water supply line, we surrounded it and the control wires with a 4 inch drainage tube. This should give us a bit of warning when we get close to it.
Then we can lay the white limestone blocks on top of the concrete.
And finally, we fill the trench created by the two walls with the loose rock that we found while we were digging.
This should make it usable for awhile. Longer term, we want to cover it with decomposed granite and then flagstones.
