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Needing to put about 300 feet of perforated drainage line below ground, Jim figured the easiest way would be to rent an excavator. Okay, maybe not the easiest way ... but certainly the most fun! Gotta love rental equipment ... it's not yours! :)
After having a sizeable tract of our property logged, I'm now putting in up to 20 fruit trees - Russian Quince, plums, pears, apples, cherries and more. Here you can see some of the trees going in. The wire cages are to protect them from numerous deer that light to come nibble their way through our acreage.
We've always had a lot of useable land out back but it's been waist-deep with thistles and blackberries. Jim has been tackling it a little each year and now, on year three, has finally cleared and tilled the land. Next year, this area will bear BOUNTIFUL tomatoes! It's such a delight to see the land cleared and tilled deep.
Tiny grass sprouts are pictured, each with crowned with a tiny dew drop!
Seven days after seeding the back yard, it is taking on a wonderful green sheen as the tiny grass sprouts poke up through the peat moss.
Here, Jim spreads his seed all over his back yard, just as a did a year ago out front. While doing the work, he was quoted as saying: "I'll spread my seed over anyone's yard ... if they pay me enough." Sad, but true. ;)
If you've been a regular reader of this blog, you'll know that putting a lawn in the back yard of our house has been a dream for years, and we've been working at it for years - patiently clearing trees, buildings, junk and other debris from the yard and then working and reworking the soil many times over, advancing a little futher each year. Today, the final tilling was done and after some levelling, the yard will be planted within 7 to 14 days. Here, Jim W. Coleman works the tiller.
Photo by Erica Coleman
After adding eight yards of topsoil to the back yard, it was thoroughly tilled and left for the Spring rains. In a few weeks, the yard will be tilled again (once or even twice), levelled, and then planted with rich, lush green grass.
Here, eight yard (10 tons) of new topsoil is dumped in Jim and Linda's driveway. This topsoil was moved one wheelbarrow load at a time, all the way around to the back of the house and the rear of the property. There, it was spread and levelled in preparation to put in a lawn.
Here, Keith Gates of American Tree Service catches his breath up a large tree, preparing to drop more limbs. I've hired Keith many times over the years and I always think: This looks so easy a caveman could do it But, after several chainsaw/tree related trips to the emergency room, I leave it to the expert. And that's Keith.
Linda has been planting rhodies, as she wants the front and back yards completely bordered with flowering plants, rhodies and azaleas. Here are some of the young rhodies in the back yard.
Now that the yard has been cleared, the soil needs to be tilled to a depth of between 7 and 8 inches - and tilled not once, but about three times. Here, the tilling has started.
An overview of our progress so far in the back yard. Eventually, this will all be graded and covered with lush, green grass, just as we did out front.
Jim W. Coleman tore out his original firepit (built when the property was being cleared) and rebuilt it - exactly as before, but this one is level. The other was hurriedly assembled due to the work that needed to be done.
We've all seen crop circles and other phenomenon attributed to alien visitors. The piles of wood in our back yard reminded me of that type of thing. Perhaps a shimmering UFO visited our property to deposit alien wood in neat, triangular piles. Pyramids, ya know?
The work continues to shape the backyard trees and to clear the yard for tilling and a new lawn. Here, the cleanup after numerous trees were removed from the yard.
Jim quit working on the yard at about 6 p.m. Monday and went inside to watch the news and stretch out in the recliner. Still, the work beckoned, as it always does - and he got back up and went outside to make these wood piles. If there is one bone of contention in his relationships (present and past) it is that he never stops. Today was no exception.
If you've been reading this blog, you'll know how important it was for Jim to get the swingset area ready. That was the first real area of attention in the back yard. Here, more bark mulch is added and the cherrytones are prepared. Because of the slope of the yard (and the fact that the cherry tones were put in level at the top), the bottom area would have had cherry tones stacked eight deep had they not been stepped down with the grade.
The pace of the work didn't slack because of the holiday. This project required endless hours of work, from about five o'clock every morning until seven or eight at night. And Monday was the big challenge, as Tuesday (being a workday) was just around the corner. If any substantial progress were to be made, it would have to be made on Monday.
By Memorial Day, 2006 - the third day of back-breaking work - little remained of the bark pile. Fifteen minutes after taking this photo, even that was gone.
Another shot of the yard full of fallen tree debris. I had to keep moving my trailer around as I worked, and got a picture of it here.
When Daddy told Kayla that her swing would have to come down to make room for the trees to fall, tears welled up in her eyes. Thanks to Keith Gates of American Tree Service, he was able to drop limbs and trunks to each side of the swing, preserving it. That meant extending my cherry tones and using more bark mulch - but that's what Daddy's do...
Much of that huge pile of mulch ended up about eight inches deep on the side of the house. The rest wrapped around the house in the front and around the rear.
Linda helped move bark and here, during a break, Jim gets a picture of her dumping bark out along the side stretch of the yard.
What equaled two dump truck loads of bark mulch had to be moved all the way around the house, requiring hundreds of trips with a wheelbarrow. By the end of day one, about 3/4 of it had been moved. And then Jim's back gave out.
Keith Gates, owner of American Tree Service (Kingston, Washington) takes a break high up in a tree. This is the third or fourth time we've hired Keith to down trees for us. He is very precise and over-delivers, providing exceptional value. I highly recommend his services and urge you to give him a call if you need to have trees removed, pruned or toppled. Tell him you read about him on the photoblog.
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