Today was the day that we've all been looking forward to. However, we were fully aware we would have to work hard and quickly ato fit everything into the daylight hours. Through some persuading, Roberto’s dad was able to come down to help us build both the pergola and the sleepers. We can honestly say that we would not have had a clue where to start without the help which was offered to us. He was able to bring tools from home that we did not have access to which saved us not only time but energy too.
When we got to the school, Jack went inside to ask whether they could direct us to the deliveries from Edecks and Covers. He also asked whether we would have access to any power in order to use the circular saw to cut the sleepers in half. However as we anticipated, they had to decline because of health and safety reasons and also their insurance would not cover us. We knew cutting the sleepers by hand was going to be a tough ask but agreed to share the responsibility between us.
We began to move the sleepers to our project area and put them in place to see where we needed to cut. Surprisingly the easiest part was cutting the sleepers into size as oppose to trying make them sit level (Jack took charge of this). With 2 hours gone we had already placed half the sleepers into position and screwed correctly ensuring they will not fall down. If we did not have an electric drill, we would still be screwing them into place now. After about 3 and a half hours all the sleepers were in place and we had a spare so we came to the conclusion that we would raise one corner of the sleeper. So off Harvey and Jack went to measure how much of the sleeper we would need to cut, whilst Roberto grabbed some soil to pour into the raise flowerbed. Another final few cuts and screws here and there, and finally we had completed the raise flowerbed. The area looked so different already. We began to pour the bags and bags of leaves and soil into the sleepers. It was at this point that we realised that we had wasted about an hour last week sieving the soil for no reason because it is going in the exact same place! Oh well, it was good exercise.
At this point, the school’s SENCO came out with a group of pupils to show them our area so far and she explained that they will be helping us build the bugs hotel. We thanked the pupils who would be helping us make the area look even better. We were glad they were so willing and excited to give a helping hand.
After a quick lunch break, we grabbed our gloves and got straight back to work. The pergola we ordered seemed simple enough to put up at first glance but when we discovered there were no instructions we had to spend 15 minutes working it out before we could start. As we had already planned where the pergola was going all we needed to do was dig holes in the correct place and put the posts in. Simple...well sadly not. We encountered so many obstacles; too deep, too shallow and even the hole being in the wrong place. Eventually we managed to get all the posts in the right place and straight. In went the concrete (some on Jack’s shoe but we don’t need to worry about that story), and after 10 minutes they were set in place.
Putting the struts on was a fun task with Harvey being the only tall group member, but we managed to place them on and screw them to the posts. The area is finally looking like a garden and not just weeds and mud. Of course, we were all highly satisfied with our work for the day and felt like it was time to pack up and head home.