Saturday 28th May.

James is looking at building a retaining wall alongside a couple of banks he excavated during renovations. I wouldn't be so presumptuous as to tell him what to do; but I could (and did,) relate our experiences with building retaining walls, and what traps there were for the unwary.
He's okay for backfill; he'd thought ahead and stockpiled all the fill he'd excavated, the man's no fool...he knew he'd need it again.
He also mentioned that he's got a lot of used bricks that are going to require a lot of work cleaning to remove old mortar.

"Ummm...no. They're not a lot of work; there's an easy way. Put your bricks in a plastic 60 litre fish-bin, fill with water, and pour in a half a cup or less of nitric acid. It's relatively cheap, and readily available from hydroponic gardening supply stores. Leave for three or four days, remove the bricks, and the mortar will just about fall off. Replace them with another load of bricks, and replenish the acid when it stops working.
Easy as. Just be careful not to splash even the diluted acid, and wear gloves; this stuff itches like an armpit full of fleas if you get it on your skin."
It's still not a fast job; but it's a helluva lot faster and easier than chipping away with a hammer and chisel.

He also told me that due to regulations he must build a ramp for wheelchair-bound people to gain access to the house before the alterations will be signed off.
And we thought our regulations were petty and preposterous...sheesh!
I took a walk over there ranch, at tops it would be about three acres total; but there's a lot of potential here to transform it into something really outstanding...and they're well on their way to doing just that.
There's been a lot of thought gone into this place already.

She cooked her famous corn and cheese chowder for lunch, (it went down well,) and got nearly three weeks worth of washing done.

A day off touring; just played catchup.

All good.