Back when we bought our small acreage, a little over ten years ago it was basically flat, and sloping very gently to the rear. We were determined to fix that. The driveway and shop parking lot were the first to be put in. We piled the original soil down the center of the property and hauled in what seemed like endless loads of gravel for under the shop, parking lot and the long driveway all the way out to the road - four hundred feet in total length. After the shop was built we shaped it to become a long sloping ridge. In the next five years we became collectors of good fil, every time somene built in the area. We knew when we built the municipality would require us to have the floor level four feet higher than the road because we were in a flood plain.

When the time came to build we piled this soil to the side and then hauled in another thousand cubic yards of gravel to raise the house. In the last weeks the soil (and another forty loads of fill) was leveled out and shaped to extend the hill that started at the shop all the way to the house. Last summer we relocated a number of the trees to extend along the top of the newly formed hill. Friday we did the last of the raking and then Phoebe and I pushed the grass seeder back and forth to sprinkle the seed.

Today as I mowed the remnants of the old lawn I couldn't stand the look of the neglected landscaping, especially the ratty looking bark mulch round the trees. I went to the tool rack and dug out the lawn edger and set to work. By supper things were looking satisfactory once more around at least a couple of the trees.

Now the landscaping fun begns for real. Stay tuned...

-grampa dan