11 September 2020

 Nate showed up at 9 with another load of A-stone, needed to fill the trench Tammy dug yesterday.  Tammy and Roy arrived just before 9:30 to start the rebuilding of the wall along the north side of our property.  We got 36 feet done before Miller time.  For the most part, we just took off the top layer or two of rocks and then built up from the remaining base.  However, in one spot the base was not set quite right and we had to pull everything out of the way and start again from ground level.  It’s a good thing Tammy is so skilled a backhoe operator, as those base rocks (that Jim set so easily with his monster excavator) weren’t small!  However, let’s also say that it’s a good thing that (1) there are a lot of trees between that wall and Marty & Merry’s house (to stop rolling rocks from ending up in their bedroom) and (2) I am quite experienced with snagging errant rocks with a logging chain.

10 September 2020

 Tammy and Roy got here shortly after 9, having done two smaller jobs before arriving.  We continued building the wall at the northwest corner of the lawn, getting that segment finished by early afternoon.  In acknowledgement of my advancing years, Tammy and Roy put a couple of steps on the woods side of the wall so I can easily go from the 17^th Frisbee golf tee onto the fairway without having to scramble up the wall.  Much to Chree’s chagrin (though let’s remember that I mow the lawn, not her), I fired up Mr. Jonsered and cut off (below ground level) the two stumps on the lawn side of the new wall that were left from dead hemlock trees that died and were taken down a couple of years ago. At noon Bob LaPorte brought us 5 cubic yards of topsoil.  To finish off the day, Tammy dug a 67 feet long trench along the lawn side of the stone wall that borders the north side of our property. That wall also defines the fairway for Frisbee golf hole #10.  The base of that wall is pretty solid ‘cause Jim Ploof built it with his excavator.  However, over the years I added a top course of rocks that have never been right.  Also, most of the water from the lower end of the driveway debouches onto the lawn above that wall and then causes constant erosion along the wall as it drains into the woods.  Time to fix!!!!

9 September 2020

 After many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many delays, Tammy Walsh (owner of Green Mountain Landscaping and stone wall builder extraordinaire) and Roy Kinsley (one of her well-muscled employees) got here at 9:30 to continue the stone wall building projects that we had hoped to have finished last November.  First on the agenda was to extend the stone wall on the west (back yard) side of the house another 27 feet to the north, then around the northwest corner of the lawn for another 21 feet.  We got about half that wall built before quitting time, with much “help” from Dino, our very rambunctious 2½ year old reverse brindle Tennessee treeing hound, who joined our family in February by way of the local animal rescue shelter.  Dino’s contribution was to bring us every single stick from the woods adjoining the wall where we were working.  You’ll note in the photos that the tractor / backhoe that Tammy is operating looks suspiciously like mine.  That’s ‘cause it is, hers being at the doctor presently undergoing major surgery after an accident last week (the reason for one of the many, many…). While the wall building was ongoing, Roy took an hour to put Type S (stands for Strong) cement into the many places on the patio where the polymeric sand (that holds all the pavers in place) had washed out of the paver joints.  Those included most of the joints that Tammy and Geryll Robinson had repaired almost exactly a year ago.  Obviously, polymeric sand does not hold up when subjected to a concentrated deluge, such a often exits under the roof valley and rain diverters. Nate Clert (Tammy’s nephew and longtime employee) brought us a load of A-stone at noon.  Putting that crushed stone inside the wall where building rocks don’t quite touch and behind the lawn-side of the wall provides for water drainage, obviating any hydraulic pressure on the wall.

16 October 2019

About 9:30, while I was busy picking another two full bucket-loads of rocks out of the area between the new stone wall and Lake Dunmore Road, Tammy and Geryll stopped by.  After discussing next steps, the two ladies left again, returning an hour later with 12 bales of hay.  They then left again, purportedly to go into Middlebury to acquire a hydro seeder (a device that sprays water, grass seed, and hay onto an area to be planted).  That trip, I thought, should have taken them an hour or so.  At 1:30 Nate showed up to take away Tammy’s Kubota, saying that he had just talked to his boss, who was in Middlebury, and should be back here “any minute now”.  At 2:00 Jake arrived, bringing with him a small broadcast seeder.  Finally, at 2:30 Tammy and Geryll returned, bearing a 25 pound bag of grass seed, a hay mulcher / sprayer (not a hydro seeder) from Taylor Rental, a half yard of topsoil, and a tale of woe involving two flat tires on Tammy’s dump trailer.  In the next hour we spread the topsoil (could have used a full yard, easily), spread the grass seed, and mulched Tammy and the seeded area with hay.

15 October 2019

Tammy and her guys got here at 9; Geryll Robinson (just back from a two-week vacation in Europe) arrived an hour later.  Tammy brought me a copy of the Rutland Herald from Wednesday, 2 October, the front page of which had a nice picture of the stone wall being built, plus a short blurb about who was doing the work (Tammy, Nate, and Jake) from Goshen Mountain Landscaping.  Nate continued building the wall front and back faces; Jake dumped stone rubble into the wall void as needed, then he and Geryll began the arduous task of cleaning the work area of all the “extra” stone; Tammy and I continued putting caps on the wall top.  By early afternoon the wall was complete, including a short extension of the Lapidus’ existing wall (built by Tammy years ago) so that the Lapidus’ and Perkins’ walls meet at the property corner stake.  Then the fun began in earnest!  Tammy used our Kubotas (one at time; she’s good but…) to aggressively grade and groom the area between the stone wall and road in preparation for topsoil and grass seed.  Let’s just say that us grunts (Geryll, Nate, Jake, and I… and grunt we did do) removed many, many tons of stone stirred up in the aftermath of Tammy’s efforts.  Back breaking work!  All that “extra” stone was dumped into a once-hollow just off the driveway.  Tammy, Jake, and I finished the final topsoil spreading at 6:15.  Don’t know about the others, but I’m PDK (translation: pretty darn knackered) tonight.

 

14 October 2019

Tammy, Nate, and Jake arrived about 8:30 to continue wall building.  While the two guys concentrated on building the outer wall faces and filling the inner void with stone rubble, Tammy and I scavenged and placed the top caps.  By the end of the day, all but 20 feet of the wall was complete… and looking PDG (translation: pretty darn good).

11 October 2019

Returned to Fern Lake with all fingers, toes, other body parts, Delores, and the Kubota intact after two weeks of working in the woods.  Got out 7 cords of saw logs and 6 cords of firewood, the sale of which should at least partially assuage the trials and tribulations endured.  On a very positive note: there were only a few occasions when the Kubota was balanced just on three wheels.  Unfortunately, those occasions caused more than a few strands of Chree’s hair to turn gray.  Oh, well!  Expected to find the stone wall complete, or the Goshen Mountain Landscaping crew hard at work.  While the wall was much further along than when we left, there was still about 40 feet left to go… and Tammy’s crew was among the missing.  A good sign: there was a dump truck load of beautiful topsoil deposited by the wall at the top of the driveway.  Tammy did call later that afternoon to explain her absence… and promised to be here Monday morning to continue work.