Then I threw a heck of a lot of dirt back on the area we had just cleaned and leveled, and raked it flat.

Why more dirt?  Because most slate pieces aren’t entirely flat and each piece needs to be cradled down into the dirt, or it will rock when you walk on it.  A thick earth bed will allow slate to sink and will stabilize them.

After the slate was positioned, I dumped another wheelbarrow full of dirt on them and raked it into the cracks.

Then I ran the soaker hose until the dirt turned to mud.  It will take a few rainstorms and several additional layers of dirt to stabilize these pieces, but they are fairly solid now.

And here’s the part where I tell you guys that in the spring, we’ll rip all of this out and redo it.

See, we needed to start working on the drainage problem and the landscaping, but our budget is such that we can’t do much.  After the holidays we can start dropping cash into the house again, but between then and now it is Not About Us.  Next year, we’ll take up the slate, re-level the ground, and remove the beam we put in to control erosion around the roots.  Then we’ll put in a couple of permanent stairs, a small retaining wall around the curved sections, and finish it off with a cement paver kit similar to the one on your left.

Not a bad temporary job, though.  It looks better and the family can walk into the back without falling down a tiny rock-encrusted hill.  Now if we can just get the bathroom done in time…