You could file this week’s column under the heading of “You know you live in a small town when…”

I am having a retaining wall built around the south side of my yard.

Now, that might go unnoticed in many places, but when you live on the corner of 10th and Main in Blue Earth, there is a lot of traffic that goes by your house. It is not like I live on some side street on the edge of town.

So, lots of folks have noticed the work being done and have commented on it. Or asked about it.

So here is the deal.

It is something I have wanted to do since I bought the house in 2008. Yes, it has been that long ago. I just thought that side of the house would be the perfect spot for a retaining wall.

In fact, I drew up plans and took photos of other retaining walls, in Blue Earth and Wells and many other places. There is one in Easton that looked just like what I thought I wanted to do.

Back a number of years ago, when I had a new driveway put in. I thought that would be a good time to put in a wall, but you know, one big budget item at a time, as there is not an unlimited amount of funding.

Then when the city put in an all-new 10th Street a couple of years ago, complete with a new sidewalk on the 10th Street side of our property, I really started seriously thinking about a retaining wall.

The sod the city had put in along the sidewalk really didn’t take, and the side hill was starting to erode. Plus, it was really a pain in the back to mow, and I was getting rather tired of mowing it.

Then along comes my sister-in-law Denise. Some folks in Blue Earth know her as the former campground host at the Blue Earth City Campground at the fairgrounds.

She knew of my long-time desire to have a retaining wall, and she and her friend Rick volunteered to build it for me and Pam.

Yes, that is correct. That is who is building it.

Denise and Rick are both members of NOMADS, a group connected to the Methodist Church who live in their RVs year-round and travel around the country doing construction projects for places connected to the Methodist church.

This last year they have been in California, New Mexico, Texas, Mississippi and even Washington State. They came here after having been in Nebraska working on a project.

So they are on “vacation” from their regular work for NOMADS and chose to come visit us in Blue Earth.

And build a wall as long as they were here. It is not the first one they have built.

They are slightly surprised at the amount of attention they are getting, and the number of people who drive by slowly to see what they are doing.

And the number of folks who stop and ask if they are for hire and if they have a business card they can have, because they want something like this done at their home.

Denise and Rick have to explain that they are not for hire.

I tell people that I hired a couple of homeless people to build the wall. Homeless in the fact that they both do not have a house, but live full time in their RVs. And have been doing so for quite a few years now.

They are not alone. There are a lot of people who do, and the NOMADS group has a lot of people who are members who travel around doing projects all over the country.

When Denise and Rick get done with their “vacation” here in Blue Earth, they are off to Washington State where they have a month long project they are doing there, with two other couples.

Meanwhile my wife, Pam, and I will get to work on doing the landscaping along the new retaining wall.

And no, we are not for hire either.

We have owned four homes in two different states over our married life, and like so many of you, we have always seemed to have some improvement project on the house in the works.

I am not sure if you are ever truly done with them. But I have to admit that getting one completed that you have been thinking about for the last 18 years will feel pretty darn good.

But, you know, I have been thinking about those front steps on the house. They need a little work. I better get on that.