The wall was progressing nicely. I was able to borrow my neighbor’s forklift attachment that fit my tractor so lifting and moving the ties was relatively easy. I’d drop them into the trench, most of them landing upright. I’d use a sledge to knock them into place.
Once I started the third course of ties, I started adding deadman. What is a deadman you ask? Let me explain.
I was already using the poles on the backside of the wall for support but I wanted to overbuild the wall a bit so I added more re-enforcement. Every so often, I would cut a tie a little shorter and place it perpendicular to the wall heading back into the grade. At the end of the tie, I would nail another smaller tie or even a shorter pole-that piece running parallel with the wall Once buried, it would anchor the wall using fill. Confusing? Take a look at the picture.
As the wall continued south, I ran into a surprise. A buried stump directly in the path of the wall.
By making some progress each day, the wall finally nearing completion. I ended up with one extra tie. Not a bad guess from the original plan. Now I needed to finish it out. There was a 3′ drop off behind the wall followed by a 30′ hill down to the bottom of the timber. I thought a fence might be a good idea.
-Continued