Repositioning of the steps

This past weekend I finally got a latch installed on my new gate. I added a new gate up near the house when I was rebuilding the fence this past summer. My only problem is that I needed to move the steps I had built at the old gate location. I also had to get a latch installed on the new gate, and I just about finished up the fence/gate work as the November rains hit last fall.

I had to raise up the latch catch a few fractions of an inch, due to the way the latch fit together. A small piece of metal from the garage worked for this. I wasn't wearing work gloves at this point, which soon caused me some pain. As I was screwing in the first screw - it caught the metal, which began to rotate. So - at drill speed - the sharp corner of this piece of metal sliced a finger on my left hand holding the piece in place. A few drops of blood later, putting on some gloves, and a small scrap of wood kept the metal from spinning any more. The latch was now installed.

New latch - with the owie bad metal

In order to place the steps, I had to do a little digging first. Before I could do the digging, I needed to remove some of the ground cover plants. No problem here.

I then needed to remove some dirt near the curb so I could place some flat concrete blocks. I needed these to be the support at the bottom of the steps. Due to the slope up to our yard, I also needed to remove some dirt where the step hangers would be. More dirt also needed to be removed from the top of the bank for more concrete blocks to provide a firm foundation for the top of the steps. Since Sunday was over 80° - this was starting to feel like a hard summer's day worth of work. Connor was a big help to me. He managed to move the concrete blocks from the old stair location to the new. There were just about at his maximum strength - but he did it. That gave me more time to keep digging. But - I still ran out of time, though I did get the steps level and stable. I still need to do a little more construction - a small landing or one step up to the deck. I guess that will have to happen on another day.... But for now - we can get out the back fence without having to walk to the corner of the yard. This would have been really great all winter long when the grass was soaking wet each day. I also need to make the latch workable from both sides of the fence...a piece of string would work, but I am thinking of something a little more sturdy. Check back later for that solution.

Steps moved...not quite OSHA approved yet, but workable