THE Road Widening - A Continuing Saga

Jan A

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Bear (bare??? in mind that what's behind that wall is a cliff. My 'yard' is six or seven feet above the wall. It won't be a deterrent from crashes into my yard, and it won't be a sound barrier.
Well then, you obviously need a force field. Where's Spock when you need him?
 

MenagerieGrl

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I would venture to say that they will be putting in a french drain in behind the wall, then back-fill with existing or new soil. to level the grade on your side of the wall.
 

Yvonne G

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When I went to bed Wednesday night this is what my retaining wall looked like - they had started on the corner:

road widening 8-3-22.jpg

When I got up this a.m. this is what it looks like - MAN! those guys work fast!!:
road widening 8-6-22 a.jpgroad widening 8-6-22 b.jpgroad widening 8-6-22 c.jpg

After the cement cures they'll start brining back the dirt to fill behind the wall. When they built the small retaining wall along my new driveway they filled the space behind the wall with landscape cloth and rocks. It will be interesting to see what they do with this large space.
 

Yvonne G

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In the first picture you can see (behind the compacter) that my next door neighbor's retaining wall has been backfilled and compacted. They'll work on mine tomorrow.

road widening 9-7-22 a.jpg

They put down a bit of large gravel, then the drain pipe, then the weed barrier cloth:

road widening 9-7-22 b.jpg

In the meantime, Dudley was getting rambunctious and he demolished his back yard shelter. So I was desperate to move him back into his old front yard pasture.

He wrecked the plywood framing the doorway, and broke the cinderblocks:
Road widening 8-13-22 c.jpgRoad widening 8-15-22.jpg

Then the following day he demolished the ceiling of the shelter. I have no idea how he managed to reach the ceiling. He tore down the pieces of plywood that were covering the opening, and the bar that held the light and RHP, and one of the longer pieces of plywood was now tilted down to the floor, which he decided he was sprightly enough to climb up and escape into the carport:
road widening 8-31-22.jpg


I had a heck of a time getting him down and redirected out into the yard. Thank goodness the previous owner of the house had placed a gate on the outside of the shelter's doorway to keep their dogs off the carport. Once I got him back into the backyard I closed that gate. The the following day I asked my son-in-law to come over and help me move him to the front yard. My s-i-l recently had abdominal surgery and he's not able yet to do heavy lifting, so I cut a branch off the mulberry tree and waved it in front of the tortoise. Jim held a couple small pieces of plywood on either side of Dudley's head, like large blinders, to keep him going in the direction we wanted. I opened the gate and he was off and running. He made the trip from the backyard, around the back of the house to the front yard in about 6 minutes. His yard isn't completely ready for occupation yet, as the east end is still waiting for the driveway crew to finish putting up the fence, so I used lots of T-posts and a couple pieces of plywood and after we got him in there Jim and I closed up the end with the plywood. Dudley seemed disoriented at first, but after about five minutes you could see the lightbulb go off over his head when he realized he was home. He started grazing and when he was through he went into his night house.
 

Cathie G

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In the first picture you can see (behind the compacter) that my next door neighbor's retaining wall has been backfilled and compacted. They'll work on mine tomorrow.

View attachment 349660

They put down a bit of large gravel, then the drain pipe, then the weed barrier cloth:

View attachment 349661

In the meantime, Dudley was getting rambunctious and he demolished his back yard shelter. So I was desperate to move him back into his old front yard pasture.

He wrecked the plywood framing the doorway, and broke the cinderblocks:
View attachment 349662View attachment 349663

Then the following day he demolished the ceiling of the shelter. I have no idea how he managed to reach the ceiling. He tore down the pieces of plywood that were covering the opening, and the bar that held the light and RHP, and one of the longer pieces of plywood was now tilted down to the floor, which he decided he was sprightly enough to climb up and escape into the carport:
View attachment 349664


I had a heck of a time getting him down and redirected out into the yard. Thank goodness the previous owner of the house had placed a gate on the outside of the shelter's doorway to keep their dogs off the carport. Once I got him back into the backyard I closed that gate. The the following day I asked my son-in-law to come over and help me move him to the front yard. My s-i-l recently had abdominal surgery and he's not able yet to do heavy lifting, so I cut a branch off the mulberry tree and waved it in front of the tortoise. Jim held a couple small pieces of plywood on either side of Dudley's head, like large blinders, to keep him going in the direction we wanted. I opened the gate and he was off and running. He made the trip from the backyard, around the back of the house to the front yard in about 6 minutes. His yard isn't completely ready for occupation yet, as the east end is still waiting for the driveway crew to finish putting up the fence, so I used lots of T-posts and a couple pieces of plywood and after we got him in there Jim and I closed up the end with the plywood. Dudley seemed disoriented at first, but after about five minutes you could see the lightbulb go off over his head when he realized he was home. He started grazing and when he was through he went into his night house.
And people think having a tort is boring cause they look like a pretty rock most of the time until they do something.😁
 

Yvonne G

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And people think having a tort is boring cause they look like a pretty rock most of the time until they do something.😁
I don't ever get to see the "how." So I can't tell you how he was able to bring the ceiling down. My first clue is usually I hear clumping, scraping and loud banging. so by the time I discover his antics he's pretty far along with the destruction portion.
 

Yvonne G

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We're having an overcast day today. Also heard a bit of thunder a few minutes ago. The humidity means my evaporative cooler won't be working well, but the clouds mean we've finally broken from the triple digit weather.

The excavation behind the new retaining wall is three quarters filled and compacted. They don't work the week-end. I'm getting excited to see the new fence installed on top of the retaining wall, and to get my yard back. I'm pretty sure once that's done they can start on the pond. Taking care of large turtles in cattle troughs is not fun (and wastes A LOT of water!!). Thank goodness none of them have died.

I'm going out now to feed and water. I'll take my camera with me to show you how happy Dudley is to be back home.
 

Cathie G

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Yvonne G

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I hope you didn't jinx yourself with that last pic and sentence.
It's looking great though.
Funny you should say that. He's back in the backyard. Last night I kept hearing banging and scraping that I had been attributing to my next door neighbor. When it kept on I went outside to see what he was doing. Well, it wasn't my neighbor, it was Dudley. He pushed aside the end post that's supporting my front porch roof and was able to squeeze out. My daughter wasn't answering her phone, my s-i-l had taken his grandkids to the Fresno State game. And at that moment I saw my across the street neighbor coming out of his house so I enlisted his help in herding Dudley back into the backyard.

The plywood and T-posts I put up out front are so well wired together that I would have to totally tear it down to get him back in there (after I fix the porch post, if I can), so it looks like he will be staying in the backyard for the foreseeable future.
 

wellington

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Funny you should say that. He's back in the backyard. Last night I kept hearing banging and scraping that I had been attributing to my next door neighbor. When it kept on I went outside to see what he was doing. Well, it wasn't my neighbor, it was Dudley. He pushed aside the end post that's supporting my front porch roof and was able to squeeze out. My daughter wasn't answering her phone, my s-i-l had taken his grandkids to the Fresno State game. And at that moment I saw my across the street neighbor coming out of his house so I enlisted his help in herding Dudley back into the backyard.

The plywood and T-posts I put up out front are so well wired together that I would have to totally tear it down to get him back in there (after I fix the porch post, if I can), so it looks like he will be staying in the backyard for the foreseeable future.
Oh man, sure didn't expect him to back fire so quickly.
I cringed when I read the end post and roof. Man oh man they really aren't content unless they are ripping up something.
 

Yvonne G

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Oh man, sure didn't expect him to back fire so quickly.
I cringed when I read the end post and roof. Man oh man they really aren't content unless they are ripping up something.
Yeah, I didn't realize the posts aren't attached to the porch's cement slab, they're just standing there with the roof holding them in place. And this was later than dusk, but not quite all the way dark. What the heck was he doing trying to escape at night? I guess he liked living in the cramped back yard, because he seems happy back there. Not pacing or being obnoxious. I've sent an email to my partner asking if it would be ok to try to find Dudley a new home.
 

wellington

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Yeah, I didn't realize the posts aren't attached to the porch's cement slab, they're just standing there with the roof holding them in place. And this was later than dusk, but not quite all the way dark. What the heck was he doing trying to escape at night? I guess he liked living in the cramped back yard, because he seems happy back there. Not pacing or being obnoxious. I've sent an email to my partner asking if it would be ok to try to find Dudley a new home.
Sad that you want to rehome him but totally understand. I guess until that happens, back yard is the right place for now. 🤞
 

Maggie3fan

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Yeah, I didn't realize the posts aren't attached to the porch's cement slab, they're just standing there with the roof holding them in place. And this was later than dusk, but not quite all the way dark. What the heck was he doing trying to escape at night? I guess he liked living in the cramped back yard, because he seems happy back there. Not pacing or being obnoxious. I've sent an email to my partner asking if it would be ok to try to find Dudley a new home.
NO!!! You can't kick him out because he's frustrated and scared as his home is all different. Once he's set up RIGHT he'll go back to being Dudley. Just wait until then...What would Mary do if I had given her away every time I wanted to when she caused trouble. Please just wait and set him up correctly...
 

Yvonne G

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NO!!! You can't kick him out because he's frustrated and scared as his home is all different. Once he's set up RIGHT he'll go back to being Dudley. Just wait until then...What would Mary do if I had given her away every time I wanted to when she caused trouble. Please just wait and set him up correctly...
It's all just getting too much for me, Maggie. The road widening's going to drag on for another year or more. He can't live in that small back yard that long. And what happens in a month or so when it starts getting cold? He has wrecked the backyard heated shelter, which included large RHP. I can rebuild it, but if he wrecked it once, he can, and probably will again.
 

Yvonne G

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9-13-22 - They've got the trench behind the new retaining wall all filled in, compacted and smoothed out:

Road widening 9-13 22 b.jpgRoad widening 9-13 22 c.jpg

. . . and in the meantime, back at the ranch. . . er. . . uh . . . in the back yard:

Road widening 9-13-22 a.jpg

Dudley is now wrecking the backyard fence. Those pickets he broke are right next to the gate to go out of the yard, and he's seen me go through the gate many times. He didn't just pull the pickets away from the fence, he actually BROKE them apart! I don't know why he quit when he did. Just a little bit more and he could have gone out. I nailed up a piece of plywood over the opening.
 

Cathie G

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9-13-22 - They've got the trench behind the new retaining wall all filled in, compacted and smoothed out:

View attachment 349872View attachment 349873

. . . and in the meantime, back at the ranch. . . er. . . uh . . . in the back yard:

View attachment 349874

Dudley is now wrecking the backyard fence. Those pickets he broke are right next to the gate to go out of the yard, and he's seen me go through the gate many times. He didn't just pull the pickets away from the fence, he actually BROKE them apart! I don't know why he quit when he did. Just a little bit more and he could have gone out. I nailed up a piece of plywood over the opening.
It's making too much sense to me why he may be trying to get away from all that construction going on. It has to be doing reverberations underground. Maybe he thinks it's tremors before an earthquake. I hope all that is going to be done soon for you and your animals.🤗
 
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