It’s not that I necessarily like doing things the hard way. It’s just that I’m not as bothered by hard work and tedium as I am by other things. I’m laying these blocks that will be the edge of the patio around my fire pit, so I need gravel to use as a base to lay the blocks on.

I looked for road base at Lowe’s, but to buy as much as I needed in the little bags they sell there would cost a fortune. Getting a scoop delivered or even renting a trailer and picking it up would be far more cost-effective. The only problem is that none of the businesses around here that do that kind of thing have entered the 21st century. They won’t give you the option to order online or even show their prices on their websites.

Fuck Your Customer Service

I would rather bust up concrete by hand than have to call a business and ask them how much they charge. I happened to have a wheelbarrow full of concrete that I chiseled out of my bathroom floor a year ago when a pipe broke in the slab, so I started with that. That wouldn’t be enough for the whole patio, but it went much further than I had expected. I was able to do over half of the base for the blocks before I ran out. I moved on to the concrete I busted out of the ground the day before yesterday. Much of it was way too big to use as a base, so I had to bust it up. I brought out an old chunk of steel that’s been knocking around my garage for decades to break the concrete on.

Easier Than It Looks

It went quickly, too quickly. I ran out about six feet from the end of the run. We’ve had a concrete birdbath laying in two pieces in our front yard for many years. I don’t know where it came from or how and when it broke, but I noticed it a few weeks ago and thought it would be an option for more filler when the time came. And now the time had come. I brought the larger piece out back and busted it up with the rotary hammer.

The concrete was quite a bit lighter than the other concrete I had been working with for the past two days. That made it very easy to break up with the hammer. I was able to complete my run, and then I used what was left over to fill in the space behind the blocks. I went ahead and busted up the other half of the birdbath and continued filling in the blocks until I was, once again, out of concrete.

Tomorrow, I think I’m going to dig up the rest of the footings that I broke up on Saturday. I only cut out enough to make a path for the blocks, but there’s no reason to leave the rest. Plus, I need more concrete. There is enough in the remnants of the footings to finish filling in the blocks. Ultimately, I will have to buy road base from somewhere, but at least now, I will have to buy less. And, as an added bonus, I’ve gotten rid of a bunch of concrete that wasn’t doing anybody any good.