Ramps and other things

I first started to write this particular instalment in mid October when it appeared that something had gone wrong with our weather. Rain we are used to - it comes and goes all the time - and in between the rainy bits we get the sun, maybe peering around the clouds at us but at least we can usually tell where it is. The wind comes and goes too, more often than not it is bending the branches of the trees and throwing the rain at our windows. But back in October we were experiencing a few weeks of exceptional weather; no serious wind for days on end, low lying clouds covering the top of the hills around our village and dimming the daylight, drizzly rain falling continuously, the intensity varying from slightly damp to a real soaker. We seemed to be stuck in a weather system which was diverting our normally constantly variable weather away from our shores, far away to the north, so that our days were filled with a damp dreariness, something to which we are not adapted. It seems that there was a high pressure system, giving someone somewhere some scorching sunshine [that's a lot of s's], an end of year 'Indian Summer', but missing us entirely. The only thing we could hope for was that the earth might spin a bit faster so the dreary dampness could come to an end. To cheer ourselves up, of course, there was no better time to start another project.

To be fair though, this particular one did actually begin last year. To explain, when we moved into our house some two years ago we found a number of unexpected objects lying about in the garden. I believe I have already mentioned the large blue Jewsons bags, some of which had been around so long that the grass had grown over them and they were only discovered when we began to explore the garden at the back of the house. But I may not have mentioned the stack of large paving stones lying in our front garden. These were still lashed together as if they had just been unloaded off a lorry so clearly they were purchased by the previous owner with some project in mind, something that never came to fruition. They were just left there waiting for us when we moved in. We have used them in various ways, putting some down to create a pavement (sidewalk) beside the road at the front, then more recently we used some more of them to extend the paved ramp which runs up towards the house from road level.

This might not look much but take it from me, moving these things into position took a lot of effort. These serious lumps of concrete are massively heavy and dangerously awkward things to move about, especially uphill on sloping uneven ground. We loaded them one at a time onto our two-wheeled trolley which, had we lost our grip on its handles, would have shot off downhill at speed and likely ended up crashing into the garage across the road. But this didn't happen, thankfully, and by laying each one carefully we created a new path leading up the side of the house. The objective here was to create a ramp, something that is easier to walk up than the twisting odd sized steps, and also a solution to help us bring up a loaded shopping trolley with much greater ease.  This has proved to be the case but at the top of the ramp we still still had three more awkward steps over which the shopping trolley had to pass.

By this time our stack of leftover pavers had been reduced until we had just three left. It took a while before it occurred to us that this was the perfect number to lay over those last three steps, so as to extend the ramp right up to the top making a continuous route up this side of the house. It needed a name so this is how 'Project Top Ramp' came into being. What was clear from the start, however, was that it would not be a simple matter of laying the slabs over soft ground. The top steps that we were seeking to cover are made of solid concrete with courses of bricks at each side. They are sloping and are of unequal height and length. Each of the pavers would have to cover just one step in such a way that it was supported at each end and could not move. It would also mean that any gaps would need to be filled with cement to provide a continuous sloping surface.

We soon realised, however, that our pavers, although massively heavy, had no internal reinforcement and as a result are actually quite fragile, brittle enough so that if only supported at each end then a heavy footfall might easily crack them. With only three left we certainly did not want this to happen. In the end we strategically placed some old bricks (something else we have discovered in quantity in our garden) beneath each one so that they were supported. Only time will tell whether this works.

The final shape of the ramp is odd as it has to twist around some existing groundworks so it does rather look as if it was not part of the original plan for the house...which of course it wasn't...but we don't care. It will serve a function and meet our needs.

At this point I have to announce that the final evolution of Project Top Ramp is on hold. Cement goes through a chemical reaction when it is mixed with sand or other materials and this process starts to go wrong below ten degrees centigrade. Beginning the project in the persistent damp weather we were getting in October was risky enough - too much rain might have washed away the cement - but shortly after November arrived the forecasters started predicting a dramatic temperature drop within the space of a few days. At least this was more 'normal' than the constant drizzle we had been living with for so long. The rain was now heavier, showers hammering noisily on our conservatory roof, and the sun was doing its peeping out thing again. Winter has dropped in to visit and the ramp will likely now stay unfinished until Spring arrives. Such is life.