And work has begun, might need more dirt.

 So I got out as early as I could (around 11 am) to start on the gopher proofing. The wind is breezy, skies are clear, and temps are mild. Huzzah! Hooboy...

First some pretty flowers with a blue sky behind it. That Bougainvillea is just loaded with flowers so I had to take a picture. the Watsonia is in full swing as well and still more to bloom.

The little unidentified rose has one flower and a few buds, I suspect it could use some more sun and fertilizer to really do well. Who knows how long it's been in the ground. Could be a Knock Out Rose, of course can't tell because it's shaded so much. It should have lots more flowers than that at a time.

Now then, all those were snapped while I was walking Rocky and then went upstairs grabbed my basket, made sure gloves were in there and my angle cutters to start the work.

The view before. That seems like a lot of dirt but it's loose packed and is deceptive in the volume. I could see the damage from the flooding now and you might even see where my foot ended up sinking in about a half inch where it was particularly loose. Neither of those aloe pots will budge, they've rooted completely to the ground, I know, I tried kicking both of them.

I was so focused on the task at hand I only got pictures of everything else real quick for reference and didn't even think about watering then. I'll consider it in the evening but still have a lot of dirt to move into the bed.

I was smart and decided bending over for twenty minutes cutting the wire was not advisable in the hot sun and took it over to the shaded patio. The roll is 4' wide so I doubled it over and did the first pass on the bottom. Bad me, I forgot the tape measure but used my 6' pole as a good measure. Purposely made it longer to have some up on the sides above ground.

'Tis but a scratch. Out of all the moving around I was doing that was the only one I got that bled. I sucked it clean then realized which arm it was on when I looked at it again and it was oozing water. Lymphodema does that and essentially was 'sweating' from one small hole. Still am even after taking a shower. No sense in putting a bandaid on it, it would just soak through so I dab at it when it collects. I took a shower afterward so it's all clean and not having issues so far.

First pass of side walls which, in hindsight of course, I should have done more rough measure and would have done it in one pass. I ended up short by about 2 feet in the corner at the bottom so  (front corner). It's a bit taller than I need and kept trying to fold it under. The walls are triple thick where the bottom is only double. Might end up folding the top down on the sides more, I made them taller because someone mentioned gophers can go above ground for short distances. Well  unless they are going to come up right next to the bed I'm not going to worry about them climbing over the top.

Fully boxed in and ready to get filled. Overkill? I think not. Another hindsight would have been asking the guy if he had U stakes handy because that would have made getting this an actual box a lot easier. I kept getting into the bed to try and move the dirt around, compacting it in the meantime which means that I actually have lost about half the volume I had before. Even with adding those two bags of compost there's not enough dirt to fill to where it was before. I might have to spend another $10 and get another bag of raised bed soil to top it off.

So total time is approximately 45 minutes. Started around 11:30 and stopped around 12:15 (according to time stamps on the photos start to finish). Going to scrape as much of the dirt along the back as possible into the trench and then put in the amendment and then the smaller pile of dirt and mix it all in. The East end (closer to the log pile) is a tad narrower due to more rounded corners on that side but it's still more than enough room for a few tomatoes, peppers or whatever else. The dirt of course just falls through the holes in the fencing so that makes it a bit harder to keep the dirt contained. It's a rush job but better than it was before because now I can garden in that bed with more confidence. I'll be transplanting the tomatoes by the end of the week or by the weekend at the latest.

Will see what my energy level is like by then but so far there is not enough dirt to fill it back up pretty sure I've compacted it too much. Hoping to do a bit more shoveling in a few hours when the sun is lower and there's more shade on the garden. I got completely worn out and overheated with only 45 minutes of work. Went back upstairs and grabbed a bottle of water, sat for a few and then got a shower. A nice cool shower before heading out to get gas for the car and pizza for lunch.

Oh yeah, I did that all on an empty stomach.