Our House: the Outside, or “Our own little park”

Robert really enjoys working outdoors in his time off, so this page reflects the things he has done to the yard, being the five acres the house is set on. He probably won’t know that I’ve named each of his little projects (that is, until he reads this page), so I have listed them in the order he has built them.

The “Great Wall” of Robert (2004)

Below the well house (yes, as in house that contains the well—no city water out where we live) and down the inside edge of the driveway is the “Great Wall.” The “Great Wall” consists of a wavy, lazy stone “retaining” wall that has a pond built into it that flows from the upper rocks down to a pool near the well house. There are also several “built-in” plant beds as well.

Robert’s “Red Light District” (2004)

I just know I’m going to come home late from work one night and find him posing under the street lamp. It does add a nice touch to the entryway of our driveway from the road, and it most definitely lights up the area. And look, I already caught him under the light in nothing but boxers and a shirt!

The Damn Dam (2004)

There’s a small creek that runs across the dirt road (still on our property—the road goes across a corner of it) that flows only above ground when there has been a lot of heavy rains. When it hasn’t been rainy, it usually flows underground. (Underground? Well, we’re not sure how, but just up the road a little the creek runs and then disappears and then re-emerges a little past the property. You can stand in the “dry” creek bed and feel the coldness of the river seeping around you though.) So Robert, being the kid he can be, decides he wants to dam up the area to create a pool the next time the water is above ground.

The “Great Wall” of Robert—Reloaded! (2005)

Not satisfied with how the original Great Wall looked, Robert pulled a lot of it down and started over on it. He expanded the pond (that was originally an old cast iron claw-foot tub) and added several beds of ferns.

On the Level (2005)

Having a “slight” run-off problem in the back yard and next to the house—due to a retaining pond on the hill above us breaking!—a friend suggested we reclaim a little more real estate by cutting into the hill behind the house and moving that earth to the front of the house, while building a burm around the house that the run-off coming from the top of the hill can follow. So we rented a Bobcat for a weekend, and proceeded to do just that.

With our friends’ help, we moved uncounted tons of rock and dirt from around behind the house to the area directly in front of the house. This created about a 10′ level area immediately in front of the house which can now be landscaped.

Terracing the Front Yard (2005/2006)

As always, Robert keeps himself busy in the yard on his days off. His primary drive is so we can have a ceremony on our 10-year anniversary in our yard with all our friends and family around. That, and he wants the best looking yard in this part of the State. He’s built a huge pond on the one side of the yard that has a waterfall flowing into it. And he’s putting in terraced walkways and beds everywhere.

More yard terracing (March 2007)

Robert managed to get a hold of a tractor and we had a lot more land moved around.

There goes the roof (End of March 2007)

Finally had the roof replaced. There was some rot damage to some portions of the roof, which were replaced in the process. Now we’ve got a nice and new green roof!