On our first work day exchange we went to our friends’ house so Jeff could help them build a rock wall. Yesterday, they came here to help us with a big project.
Our project actually started two weeks ago when we had four madrone trees cut down that were in between our house and pole barn. One was dead. This area was higher than both the yard we’ve dug out of the hillside and the area where the pole barn is built. Sometime within the next year, we want to build a utility room toward the back of this location. It will house a new pressure tank and water storage tank, as well as garden tools. The majority of this area, though, will be an extension of the gardens we plan for around the house.
Once the trees were cut down, Jeff began lowering this area to the level of the yard around the house and the pole barn (although it will still be a bit higher than the barn). He did this by digging around three of the stumps with the backhoe and building up more of the slope down in front of the house. We lost some of the driveway that comes up to the house, but that is okay, because now we have a yard that circles the entire house. We don’t plan a traditional yard, with grass and such. We plan gardens — for both food and beauty.
Then our friends came yesterday to join in on the project. They brought their skid steer. Together with our backhoe, the guys got those stumps out so efficiently. It was cool to watch. Jeff dug more around the roots with the backhoe, and our friend used the loader on his skid steer to push each stump over. The skid steer has 80 HP, about double what Jeff’s got on his tractor. Jeff purposely had the stumps left 8 to 12 feet tall so he could use them as a lever when pulling the root mass out of the ground.
The heavy equipment approach the offending stump (not really, we do love trees)…
… and together they bring it down. They pretty much took the same approach with the two remaining stumps.
Mikah enjoying climbing up on the root mass.
Then he jumped off and Haniya took a picture.
(I should say that Haniya took most all these pictures.)
The men surveying their work… There used to be three madrones here on a big mound. Now the area flows from house to barn. The background, where the skid steer is, is where we plan to put the utility-water building.
The guys piled up the stumps in a nearby, but still out of the way, place. The logs piled so securely and so interestingly, that they became an amazing fort for the kids. The kids can climb up top or crawl into a little cave underneath. The pile isn’t in the right place, though, so eventually Jeff will drag the pieces off and recreate the structure in a permanent location. That will be even better.
Mikah and Haniya are on top.
What you can’t see is that Naomi and our friends’ two children are inside the cave.
Now you can see Naomi, here inside the “cave”.
The log above her head is the log on which Haniya and Mikah
are resting their feet (see the previous picture).
For the children to be able to play in and around and on top of these logs made a great ending to a fantastic and productive day! This isn’t all the guys did, though. They pulled out a stump where we’re creating a campsite. They also leveled an area at the top of our property where we want to build a viewing/picnic platform. We are so thankful for our friends’ help and for wonderful fellowship.
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