June 3, 2012

So, this post is going to combine several days worth of pictures. Quit your whining; it seems that I failed to photographically document my work the past few days. In other words, I was slack with the camera, except for some mushrooms, but I don't believe there is a connection between the two. If there is a connection, then I probably wouldn't realize it.

Yeah, I'm a mushroom paparazzi. The exposure of so many roots and stumps stimulated mushroom growth. I'm fascinated by how the spores were dormant until I moved the dirt. This is another sign of the poor soil health. Soil with good microbial health would have consumed all of this wood matter long ago.

Yeah, I tried to get artsy with a mushroom while using a point-and-shoot camera.

Notice how the wooden root at the top seems to point directly at the mushroom. Subtle and artsy, heh?

I like how the root wraps around and down and it's color contrasts with the dark soil.

I was driving by a house that was being moved. Yes, the entire house was on a wooden frame in order to be moved. This pile of bricks and broken concrete called to me. I would love to do something with the brick, but I absolutely don't have the space. The concrete, on the other hand, is going to become retaining walls for the terraces. Now, I just need a sledge hammer. No surprise, by the way, the owner of the property was very happy to let me take this off his hands. Truthfully, I can't thank him enough. This supply came at just the right moment.

Over the course of many days, I broke up these slabs, loaded the chunks onto the pick-up truck, and unloaded them in the back yard...and it was the middle of summer. I had forgotten how humid NC summers are. I was drenched in sweat, which might be why I limited my camera use. The sweat was literally dripping off of my hands.

I've decided to go ahead and remove the post for the old clothes line. Little did I realize the effort that would be involved.

Note how deeply I had to dig just to reach the surface of the anchor. Because of the perspective, the height of the post is hard to appreciate.

I don't know how much it weighs, but my neighbor and I felt it would be unsafe for both of us to try and pull this out onto the level ground. The surrounding hole was too soft for us to get decent leverage. Looks like the sledge hammer was a good investment. My guess, my grandfather wanted my grandmother to have a way to line-dry clothes even after the Apocalypse.

I finally have enough blocks in place to start the retaining walls. I'm quite excited about this part. Finally, it's beyond just digging and moving dirt. Finally, I can start expressing my vision. Plus, my grandfather will be able to see what I'm planning, other than just tearing up the yard. Because, you know, tearing up the yard was my only plan.

The railroad tie is covering the stump in the image below.

In the next two pictures, note the difference in height of the terrace as compared to the area to the left of the stump and the area down slope of the cross terrace. I was completely unaware that the yard sloped that much in that direction. My mental plans did not account for that at all. No matter. I'm not married to them. Besides, I'm a firm believer in that plans adapt to reality, not the other way around.

More mushrooms.

Note how in the image below the photographer attempted to invoke a sense of distance and alienation with the background mushroom by narrowing the depth of field and blurring its visage. Already alone, it's pain of isolation is further exacerbated by being literally lower than its contemporaries, thus, less desirable to any potential mates.

That's it for now.