Filed under: June 2012
Landscape improvements
June 4, 2012
The dirt work has been done for a few days now. I just have been unable to write about it. The man finished just hours ahead of the rain that would have made for a sticky mess, had he not got done. I am very pleased with the job he did.
It is fascinating to watch a man do what he is good at. It seemed as though every move of the machine, produced positive results. I am almost certain that he could spread butter on toast with the excavator. Like a little boy, I stood nearby just watching him work with a big smile on my face, amazed by man and machine 😮
This work is not just for looks. The whole area that he shaped and smoothed, had been a craggy mess only fit for bugs and snakes. I could not mow it, even the sheep avoided the area. The water pooled there and made homes for mosquitos. In short, it was a swampy, brushy quagmire that prevented any drainage and looked like heck.
I now have to finish a sort of seedbed and get some pasture grasses planted. I am thinking that some wild flowers will be naturalized here and there, to make the whole area a happy place. The sun-kissed flowers of summer, followed by the bright colors of autumn, put to sleep under a blanket of white and awakened by the happy shrieks of children playing and the laughter of family working together near the sugarhouse in spring … can make this place not only happy, but enchanted as well.
The little grotto where the sugarhouse sits, was a swampy, brushy tangled place twenty years ago. There were a few maple and other hardwood trees littered around the site, but skunk cabbage and briars were the most abundant plants. I had a vision back then. I had a plan for the spot. It just took time, patience and a continued walk towards my goal. The sugarhouse and surrounding area will one day be a crown jewel of my farm. It will remind me of a testament to perseverance and finding a way where no way exists.
This latest effort was all about moving some dirt. Some folks will just see soil, bulldozer tracks and a whole lot of work. I see an awesome landscape ready to be painted. I see a project that has been in the back of my mind, on my list and in my heart coming to completion… In fact, I see celebration mixed with reverence. I will celebrate my accomplishment and give thanks for a vision planted in my mind by my grandparents and parents, all of whom would be very proud of this project and most of my efforts…. I am very glad about that.
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