Yard settled where we ran our drainage pipe to road

Last fall I posted about the yard work that needed done in the spring after the dirt had a chance to settle, this is an update and we got some gravel, after the spring melt off we get a very muddy driveway plus the farmer uses our driveway to access the pasture field behind our house to check on the baby calves

 here is the tore up yard again after we scraped it around to level it out better since it settled over winter

 oh yes, I know it's still horrible looking

 and there sits my poor shrub they took out, I wasn't allowed to put it back in until they made sure everything was ok with the drainage ditch

 flowerbeds are slowly trying to come to life

 looks better, the new gravel that is, but we have a ton of family gatherings here and I decided we needed a new parking area for everyone

 so this is the plan I made for hubby, he thinks I am just nuts but oh well, I usually get my way EVENTUALLY

guess this is what I get for not letting her come outside with me, she sits in the window and runs from room to room to peek out windows and doors to see where I am at

sooo, it's later now, after supper and these photos have been lightened so you can actually see them, we also had to wait for the neighbors wheels LOL grab a huge log, an old set of bed springs and start dragging the yard to help level it and get all the rocks out

 yes, there are dirt specks all over the camera lens and photos from the dust flying around

 Kota driving and I don't know where the hubby went, probably to get another log for weight

 he isn't complaining, he loves driving the ranger!

 ok hmm "angels" or something? I think it's either dust or maybe a lightning bug, not a clue where those came from in this photo but they sure look like little angels LOL

 that metal bed spring sure does drag the dirt around pretty good

 ahhh there he is, more weight!

 whatever gets the job done

next, get the bigger rocks picked up then seed and straw over top and a good soaking!

Yard work after the drainage ditch & sewer lines redone

You all know how much of a mess we had during the drainage ditch around the house work was being done, huge mounds/mountains of dirt, well that all got put back together, now to wait over the winter for it to settle then in the spring we can fill in and level off and get some grass seeded

oh yes, quite the messy yard right?

what's even worse, is the guineas we have think roosting on the front deck railing is a good idea, I do not!

they leave me little presents I don't wish to receive!!

 yup fall is here,everything is messy now

the water lilies are starting to die off as are the other plants in the pond

you know how you get one project done then immediately there is something else that needs done? well this time around it was the sewer lines, we had to dig from the basement all the way through the pasture field to get the old clay tile out and redo it with new good stuff, I worked and didn't get photos of the process, but you can see the finished area

at least another thing checked off our list!

so . . . the neighbor was going to haul his old farm truck to the scrap yard, wondered if we needed a pickemup truck - heh heh heh so we got it from him, now you know why this is called the "redneck" place, all my co workers got to calling this truck "Laurrie's redneck truck"

 don't you just love the duct tape?

 hey for scrap price, I don't think hardly anyone could get a truck for $500 these days!

well it may not be pretty but it runs!!!! and this old hillbilly is happy to have a truck to haul tons of plants around (and rocks, and dirt and well you get the picture it hauls anything!

Sealing the basement walls before we fill in drainage ditch

The ditch has been dug, the gravel is here to fill in after we get the pipe laid but before we can do that we thought we would take an extra measure of protection on the basement walls, we applied a basement sealer to it

 I have been working on this on my day off while hubby is at work, he can put the second coat on after this is dry HA HA - this left side is where the back porch is and where we are starting the drainage pipe (this is the back side of the house)

 back side of house still

 here you can see the end, the ladder is for me to get in and out, because unlike my daughter, I am NOT running up and down the trench to get in and out

 I have even put this sealer on the footer where the block start, better safe than sorry

 see the water laying in there, oh yes, my shoes were a horrid mess by the time I got out of the trench

that's the first coat, will let it completely dry before we do the second coat, then we will lay the perforated pipe then gravel on top of that and then push the soil back in 

we will be running the gutter drain also into the drainage trench to have it flow out into the roadside ditch

will update later when I have time

continued drainage ditch around house

continued from yesterday, the ditch is dug now all around the end of the house and it winds around to the backside of the house until it hits the back porch

My Cheyenne thought she needed to run through the ditch

goofy kid!

You can see it goes from the road all up the yard and then around the end of the house

I don't know why I didn't get photos of the huge hole on the end of the house, probably because I was working when they dug it and I forgot!

Digging up around house for drainage

Remember my post from May 6th, talking about the end of the house that gets all the hill runoff, it soggies up the yard and ends up in our basement May 6 post 
and this post showing the mess

Well it's time we did something about that, not my favorite thing in the world, tearing up a beautiful yard after it's taken so long to get everything looking pretty out there, but sometimes we have to do it

 hubby on the measuring stick (for depth of ditch) and brother in law on the backhoe of the neighbors we borrowed to do this ditch project

it's getting there!, what a mess, all that dirt all over the yard now :(

 had to get the box turtles out of their enclosure because it is now all dug up, they will have to all live in crates for a day or two until I determine where I want to make their new homes

see the snail along for the ride, someone must have found the toad and put in there with them, goofy things, hitchin a ride

pretty babies, don't know what to do stuck in a crate

 checking depth

 ran some water to see if the runoff has the right slope so it doesn't back up but flows out into the ditch

 that's a deep and long trench!

 and that used to be my beautiful front yard boo waahh

 at least they moved my shrub

adjusting the slope a bit

Drainage around house, cobblestone sidewalk

 Remember my sidewalk I built because I didn't like the mud it drug into the house, I wanted to take it all around this end of the house and meet up in front to the front porch?

 well I stopped because winter was on it's way, then we found out we needed drainage ditch around the house so never did anymore, figuring to hold off and finish it after the ditch was put in

it has worked great, that little sidewalk  and the hosta in my planting boxes are growing really nice

well you see that lovely hill behind our house, it really does allow a ton of water to run off, right down into where we park as well as around the house itself, and we have been getting water in the basement

you know what that means, drainage ditch around the house is top priority now, you can see I have prepared and removed all the plants that I had on this end of the house, they are now snuggled up in that new front flowerbed I just created

the poppy is from the lady Laner up the road, she was moving and said I could dig starts all I wanted, she didn't think they could be transplanted, well I dug some, and lookie there, they were happy enough to grow and bloom for me :)

just a pretty little egg basket I planted, such pretty bright colors with the pansies, lobelia, dusty miller and the clematis is growing into it now too