Functional? We Shall See.

I have this issue with the house/front yard portion and the larger majority of the small calm farm where I spend most my time (working or just enjoying the space). There’s a nice, solid 12 foot retaining wall between the house and the garage/property, but I must walk 40+ feet east to the end of the retaining wall and down the gravel lane, go straight out the same sun porch door and climb 12 feet down a home-built ladder to the garage pad, or go a few feet out the west door on the other side of the sun porch and down a 35-40 degree slope (my preferred path). That slope, as a friend who recently visited reminded me, will be teacherous when it’s snowy or, worse, icy.

So, I dug and built these quasi steps, using blocks from a raised flower bed / planting area I don’t particularly want.

Next year, I plan to build a simple 10-12′ x 16-20′ deck (from lots of 4×4″ and 2×12″ reclaimed barn lumber) on this side of the sun porch. For now, I have these steps.

So far, walking down on frozen snow, I haven’t broke any bones.

Pictures were taken 2 days before snow and sub-freezing temps came and stayed for several days. I didn’t have a chance to flatten out the “step” landings and cover them with gravel. So this must do until the next warm time when the ground thaws.

I don’t know what I’m doing.

But try to do it myself, anyway.

On the cheap.

That’s the theme here on the Small Calm Farm.