Work, Work, Work…

In my last post I mentioned I would be including a few more details on the work we did on the lot over the long Memorial Day weekend. Here is that information!

Most of the projects centered around the slope created by the driveway install or work on the driveway itself. The contractor suggested we build some soil erosion control terraces across the face of the slope using old aspen logs, stumps, and rocks exposed during the driveway construction. These terraces would help hold the slope in place until native soils and vegetation could take hold.

Here is a photo of the drive slope after construction:

Driveway slope after construction

Three terraces later the slope looked like this:

Terraces in place

I cut stakes from a couple aspen trees and used them to anchor the cross-logs. We dragged a few longer dead logs (that had been downed earlier on the lot) and added them to the mix. Pam went through our slash pile and dug out old stumps and situated them as additional supports. She also picked up a lot of the loose rocks that had come off the slope and threw them onto the uphill side of the retaining logs. This made the footing at the base of the slope much better!

Pam taking a break from working on terraces

We had been told that new aspen will sprout from old aspen stumps, so we collected a bunch of stumps uprooted by the construction and placed them at the top edge of the slope, partially buried.  We hope our information was correct and some young aspen spring from these  stumps — collecting, placing, and burying them was a lot of work!

Old aspen stumps placed at top of slope

In the above photo you can see, off to the right, some of the terraces. At bottom center in the photo is one of the evergreen bushes Pam found on the lot and transplanted to the slope. Pam transplanted several items, including a dozen blooming cactus plants, using the tools she had brought along just for this purpose:

Pam’s transplants, including cacti

While the slope took up much time and energy, two other projects also received attention. One of these was the driveway retaining wall, the other was wood clean-up and hauling.

The supplies on the aluminum trailer included 9 railroad ties. Pam and I unloaded them using the following procedure:

I pick up one end of the tie. Pam slips a chain around the end of the tie. Chain is attached to the ATV, which is then used to drag the ties off the trailer and roughly position them along the drive. Later I took a shovel and flattened the ground where the ties would sit and repositioned them into place. The whole operation went pretty well. I used the 2-wheel dump cart to haul up a couple loads of rock from the base of the slope and used these as an additional retaining wall.

Railroad ties at right edge of driveway

The work done so far had taken Saturday afternoon and Sunday. Monday morning we tackled the last project we had planned, lot clean up. Using the ATV I was able to get the trailer pretty close to what remained of the slash pile that was at the bottom of the slope (slash featured in picture #3 above, behind Pam). After loading this wood I hooked up the trailer to the truck and went over to the burn pit.

Unknown to us, the rules concerning the burn pit had changed. In the past we had received a combination to the pit gate and could dump when ever we wanted. The pit was now closed except for Saturdays from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM. I drove up to the local fire station and spoke to one of the guys there to get the story. It seems some people were using the pit as a dump and dropping used appliances, broken toilets, and hazardous materials (paint and stain) that were very expensive to clean up. The pit was designed for wood dumping, encouraging clean up of dead wood around houses for increased fire safety. No wood dumping for us this day! (I did go over the following Saturday, June 1, applied for a permit, and dumped this and another load of dead wood.)

At the burn pit

After that is was time to pack up and, sadly, head home. It had been a busy but satisfying Memorial Day weekend!

Trailer life.

The other part of this story is our first RV experience. It went pretty well. There were a few issues of finding things, adjusting the furnace thermostat, and getting used to the small toilet and shower. I had filled the water tank at home, but had since filled the water heater and tested the water systems. This led to us running a bit low on water the last day. (Since then I have refilled the tank with water from a local hand-pump well.) We slept OK and figured out where to put things like recycle materials. Its not like home (we learned that it takes a few seconds for the hot water to kick in when the water is turned back on at the shower head)  but is a great step up over tent camping. I think we will be comfortable  for weekend and longer stays.

Here is a 2:03 video of me getting fresh water for the trailer:

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You can tell by my huffing and puffing just how out of shape I am!

Did I mention our land is part of an open range?

Cattle on the open range

Not all bad; we occasionally see pronghorn antelope:

Pronghorn antelope seen on way to lot

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

The antelope did NOT play with the deer (…where the deer and the antelope play…),

Discouraging words WERE heard (…where seldom is heard a discouraging word…),

And the skies were DARK PURPLE with an oncoming storm (…and the skies are not cloudy all day…).