Cliff,
Consider leaving enough room for a garden and copious space to get to the windows.
You should run your mower along the proposed line to see if you can " cut it "
A few pics of this weekend’s start of the retaining wall project.
Long story short, the shed’s foundation is a huge French drain, a big sloped gravel-over-paper thing, so it won’t be a problem. But the water coming down the hill is behaving poorly, messing with the stair next to the house and the new ramp area. And blowing out some graveled areas around the new deck.
So… this retaining wall, and the drain tile (perf’d tube) against it, is an effort to capture at least some of the runoff and divert it around the shed entirely. As mentioned earlier, it’s also intended to provide a more mowable border to the totally screwed up lawn in this area.
I had no idea how this was going to go, so I’m thrilled that a method has presented itself, and that all seems relatively straightforward now.
Sorry for the increasing non-railroadiness of this project, I’ll get back to trains eventually! Heck, now that I think about it, that wall would be a perfect roadbed… No! no, no, no. No.
You can do whatever you want but this is probably what it’s gonna look like 40 yrs from now. You will be sitting in your in your chair yelling at the 50yr old kids in the neighbor hood to get the hell off your property!
To move less dirt and avoid the necessary dirt-moving volume calculations, I decided, heck with it, and to just make two short walls. Last weekend I put in the upper retaining wall and its drain tile & gravel.
Yesterday I dug out the shed walkway (it was seriously sloped toward the shed). I was aware of a tree stump somewhere, and yeah, chopping it became the new priority.
This morning I went back to the stump (sounds like a country western song) with the intent of laying block around it. But nope, the stump needed carving to act as a shelf for a course of 5 blocks. New chain needed for the saw… then lots of trial and error until the blocks were set.
I continued the wall northward, and than called it quits for the day.
Once I finish the lowest course of the new wall, it’ll get taken down, papered below, & re-laid with an additional course on top. The area between the walls will be Linda’s new planter for shrubbery, flowers, or whatever she decides to put there.
Cheers,
Cliff
PS, my back say thanks to Bruce C. for the Gorilla cart!!
If you put this much effort on the trestle. It would be done 
Sean, thanks for the reminder. I count on you for that. 
I really intend to make that a priority.
And Linda says I better finish that and the switch machine project…
I wish I was smart enough to think of that when I built the wall for my RV pad. It’s at the bottom of a long slope and half our street drains through my yard in an open dry run channel. When that channel gets blocked with debris the water spills out into my driveway and eventually over the wall. The first major storm washed out a 8 foot section. When I rebuilt, I used weed block to keep silt from running between the blocks. There are a few drains on the pad at the wall , but with a ton of water they were not enough. Since adding the weed block 10 years ago it hasn’t failed again; yet.
Jon, you’re one of the smartest people I know, so I know that wasn’t the issue!
Geezing away at 64, I can’t remember squat… but my SIL Carlo, upon seeing what I was doing, reminded me to put in drain tile (perf’d tube) with the gravel. And I said, “Oh. Duh.” It took Carlo to remind me.
So maybe we’re in the same boat.
It looks like there’s a lot of thought going into ShedOps 2024. I like the 2 tiered concept for crowd handling. You may need to budget another windows though if you’re expecting any more.
I also note you’ve taken a page from the Sustainable 2024 Olympics programme and prepared and planned for the post-ShedOps era.
Does Linda actually know that she is part of the big plan and that she may want to consider dwarf shrubbery?
Now I realise ShedOps 2024 hasn’t even opened, but I’ve noticed the effort you’ve put into getting the grades right. Those are some suspiciously graceful curves you’ve got going there Cliff. Which one is going to be the mainline?
Consider that If you bought some bigger Ag-Pipe for behind the wall, you could avoid switchbacks and go Roundy-Round. You’re welcome.
HahaaaaaHHaaa(cough)HAAA! Bill you’re too much.
Oh, like stadium seating?
Took me a minute, but yeah… at least one switchback avoided…
Thanks. Hmm… Maybe the…
Wait! No!! No, no NO!! no no no…
Thanks Rooster, I now feel like my past weekend is officially complete.
Cliff, I hope this answer, is a sign that you have relatives in Dibley.
Another update, if you can stand it.
Last week I was able to put in the second (lower) wall, the biggest challenge of which was chain sawing a buried but really tough old tree stump so the blocks could fit.
The gravel arrived Friday morning. 5 tons. I told the driver my back hurt just looking at it! 
Yesterday, Linda handled installing the drain pipe behind the wall: trenching, papering, graveling, and making the dirt behave.
While she did that, I made the ramp-grass interface, with pavers & gravel. Also leveling out the walkway against the shed as prep for gravel. Today was papering all (well, most) exposed soil except the planter, putting enough gravel down to keep it there, and leveling the planter dirt.
I had to remove 6 or 7 gorilla carts of dirt from the planter, I had filled it way too much. But I needed the dirt in the foreground area in the following pic.
The wood dam is to divert at least some water until I can lay sod.
I’m really pleased with how much we got done this weekend. And now I’m just waiting for the Advil 800 to kick in… 
It’s all wrong! Knock it down and start fresh!
Cliff, you NEED this. This is on top of my mancave. Now if you ask where I got it, I will have to look through a ton of paperwork.
I’m not normally a suspicious guy, but has anyone else noticed the grade is less than 3% and that there is a now a grey section of what appears to be ballast separating the wall from the garden bed?
…ʍouʞ oʇ ʇuɐʍ spuᴉɯ ƃuᴉɹᴉnbuƎ
Lou, I totally agree.
It would be so much easier to install than the cupola with the headless rooster 
weathervane.
