December 22, 2012 A new dig site.

My grandfather installed a valve in order to drain the pond if necessary. It was buried level with the bottom of the pond, which required an access point below ground level for that time period. He placed bricks around the valve handle in order to protect it from build up. Over the years, the brick walls grew taller and the hole filled in with leaves and dirt. Fortunately, he only stacked the bricks; no cement. I think it topped out at eight brick high; that's adjusting for the small cinder block.

The next two pictures show how high the ground level rose over the years. It can be seen by the discoloration along the bottom of the fence. Yet, this does NOT truly show how much build up really occurred. That will be seen in one of the pictures further below. Note the greenery pushing between the slats.

My grandmother wanted some bamboo. Reminded her of Japan, I guess. But bamboo is very invasive, and, not know of clumping bamboo, my grandfather buried this barrel in order to contain it. Didn't work. The barrel essentially became a dead zone. Water got trapped in it - no holes, you see - and everything in it died. When I dug it out, it was filled with goopy dirt.

This picture shows the TRUE height of the build up from the inside. The left arrow is actually pointing to the base of the corner post anchoring the chain-link fence on the outside of the wooden fence. It's base is at least SIX INCHES below the bottom of the wooden fence. And I believe that the base of the steel post might even have about an inch or two of build up on IT.
I'm not sure why he buried the plastic sheeting. Maybe to line the barrel. Notice all of the bamboo? Yeah, all of it came from outside of the barrel. It has escaped into the wild.

Also, today, I started work on cleaning the shrubbery from the other side of the fence. I can only say that one neglects nature at one's own peril. 

Yep, there's a chain link fence under there. When we moved in, this fence was already installed. My grandfather put up the privacy fence. What I don't understand, the gate, which I've already removed, had a padlock on it.

 
 
Note the shovel head. Even with the wooden fence in the way, that much dirt built up on the OPPOSITE side. Not sure how I want to deal with this section, though.

Still haven't found the bottom of the fence.

The gate, lock already removed, obviously. Note how the bottom of the gate is not visible; buried too deeply.

Suburban Hermit of Fayetteville signing off.

December 21, 2012 A new stump has entered my life.

Well, it's back to stump digging. Just how many stumps will I find? hard to say. We don't have ANY pictures of the yard over the years. Kind of sad to me, in a way. In other ways, can't live in the past. Edna 'E' Mode, from The Incredibles, said it best.

Anyway, here it is. My new albatross...for now.

The next two pictures show how deeply I had to dig to get to a weak spot on the tap root. Again, as always, I'm amazed at how much dirt that I had to move to get around and under this beast. Notice the position of my hand in comparison to my hip.

Finally, a weak spot in the tap root. Hmmm, why is it split?

It's out!!! It's upside down and notice the piece of concrete that split the tap root. Actually, the tap root grew around it. The tip of the left root goes past my hip in height.

Two observations. First, in the first picture, compare my relative position to the dirt pile; in the second picture make the same comparison. Yeah, that's a deep hole for such a little stump. Second, also in the second picture, notice the relative position of the peak of the dirt to my eye line.

Just wanted to show some work-in-progress pics.

And, finally, a close-up of the split root with concrete. I'm going to use this as an 'art piece' for the garden.

That's it for today.

Suburban Hermit of Fayetteville, signing off.

December 20, 2012 The digging can resume.

Not much going on today. It's been a process of digging and finding. Dig in a spot and find rocks that have been covered over by erosion. This entire pile came from around the base of the cinder blocks. Looking at the positive side, at least I have plenty of rocks for later decorating.

For some reason, I've only gotten one video to load correctly. If anyone knows anything about this, please, let me know.

Suburban Hermit of Fayetteville, signing off.

December 19, 2012 This might be the day on that waterfall.

The bricks in the right picture are at the base of the stacked cinder blocks in the left picture. They are what I found buried by erosion around the waterfall core.

I like how all of the tubing for the falls leads away from the core. Kind of artsy. This picture is also to show that root that grew along the edge of the pond. Nature will find a path.

Okay, this is the moment of truth. The trunks of the vine are growing through the upper two cinder blocks. I'm going to remove the upright one on the bottom. It's in fact a full block; it's lower half has been buried by erosion.

 TADAAA!!!! And the vine still stands! Wow. That's so cool. 

 In the next series of pictures, you can see that it is completely self-supporting. No strings or mirrors have been used in this performance.

Had a friend stop by, so I was able to include some video. 

The onion cuttings are doing nicely. 

Suburban Hermit of Fayetteville signing off.

December 18, 2012 Still dismantling the waterfall.

The dismantling of the waterfall continues. I remember when this was being built; my grandfather built one version, then quickly followed with another. I asked him if was going to try a third version. "Nooooo," he responded, "This is it." As a youngster, I wondered why he didn't want to try a third version. Now I know.

 The cinder blocks used as a base, in the middle of the left picture, were completely covered by erosion. I'm still stunned by how much build-up occurred, and how no one seemed to notice. The arrow in the same picture is pointing to the camouflaged rock, which is exposed in the middle picture.

The root mass that grew along the sides of the cinder blocks in the cavities shown in the upper right image. The far right image below shows the wedge of roots that grew in-between the two cinder blocks. It's all roots, it seems. Nature does indeed abhor a vacuum.

 Hmm, found another buried...rock? The shape doesn't seem right.

Looks to a piece of cement footing of some sort. Not sure why it's here, maybe was used as a filler.

                                     

Wow, look at that root mass that was covering it.

Almost complete. Can I tell you? Those flat rocks are HEAVY! As thin as they are, I would not have expected those to be the most troublesome...and the most dangerous; turns out the edges are really sharp, so sharp that flipping and rolling are the safest methods of movement. 

Just a couple of panos to show the progress so far.

All of the rocks that I've moved so far. Unfortunately, I know that I'll have to move them again. Finding a spot for them will be an endeavour.

 Suburban Hermit of Fayetteville, signing off.