At Home In The Woods

[Obed]

My experience with borders is they don't hold back the grass, and are a PITA to keep trimmed. I also go by the saying, if it can't be cut with the riding mower, it didn't need to be cut. :laughing: If you take a spade and shovel the edges back every year or two (like landscapers do), then you minimize the grass encroachment. Do it early in the spring when the ground is soft, it's real easy. If you wait till June or July, it's a lot harder. If you have straight edges on the flower beds, the FEL makes a nice edging tool.

I like your thoughts. Using my box blade like a dozer, I could easily scrape off grass along the edges of straight beds. However, I'm not sure my wife is going to have straight edges. One thing for sure, if something needs to be frequently trimmed with a string trimmer, then I'm going to think long and hard before choosing that path. I'd rather spend my time doing something productive like cutting firewood or watching a ballgame. I really like to be able to sit on my behind the whole time I'm cutting the grass.
Obed

 

[Obed]

Frank, I completely missed the grass photos until reading your post. Then, I went back and looked. I agree with you completely. Obed's grass looks wonderful. He did a great job getting it up and hopefully if will hold onto his soil.

Jim,
I understand the confusion; it's my fault. I'm behind on getting all my pictures posted. I wanted to bring you guys up-to-date so I posted some new pictures with grass but have put up some older pictures later out of order.

Another way to do a border is with native stones. You need to cover the ground beneath the stones with landscape cloth to help control grass. My long bed of iris and cannas is an example. As with any border of this type, you'll eventually get weeds.

You have a beautiful place there. You've obviously spent some time outside around the house. I hope my wife doesn't look at the pictures you posted!

Obed

 

[Obed]

Yesterday I cleaned up an area in front of the house by the two culverts. It had some residual piles of dirt and concrete debris that had been dumped/scattered during the construction and grading work. I don't intend to grass this area but plan to leave it natural. I wanted to get the dirt smoothed out now so the leaves can cover the area this fall.

The weather was just glorious with clear skies and temps between 50 F and 70 F.

I love my box blade. It is an incredibly useful tool. It does take some practice getting the hang of it. With this project I've gotten lots of practice.

In the pictures you can see new grass in the clearing up the hill where the garden will go. That area is about 1/3 acre. We seeded that area with grass 3 weeks ago.

 

[Obed]

Obed -

Wow, the place looks completely different with grass!! Really looks good!

Frank,
Thanks. We are really enjoying seeing the grass. We've made comments to some of our relatives about how we are excited about the grass and have gotten somewhat subdued responses from them. I don't think most people have any idea how depressing it can be looking at piles of red clay for over a year and a half.

As for the dirt work.....did you have a chat with the contractor? Mention to him he's undoing his work you didn't want him to in the beginning? And about breaking the drain line? Seems to me he's charging you twice for the same job, and threw in a little damaged line to boot.....perhaps some re-negotiation on his fees would be in order?

We got a bill from him and I cannot reconcile the numbers on it with our contract. I'm trying to schedule a time to see him so we can go over the numbers face-to-face. We're willing to pay him a little extra for some hassle-factor but I need him to justify his bill.

Obed

 

[Obed]

After the grading contractor lowered the parking area outside of the garage (shown here), I came home to find where he had deposited the dirt. My poor wife got to hear me vent for a few minutes. The contractor had explicit instructions regarding where ALL the extra dirt was to be placed. We had a spot down the hill in the woods and a second place up the hill in the woods. Carrying dirt to either spot would require some machine time; however, before the contractor bid the grading job, he was told where to put all the extra dirt.

When I took the picture above, I was standing about 100 feet from the end of the house. This is the area where I will stack our firewood and park my tractor. The surface had had a nice pebbly hard surface that did not get muddy when it rained. My nice surface was gone under 2 feet of dirt. In order to save time the contractor had spread 18 to 24 inches of dirt over this entire area because that spot was close and he didn't have to spend the time to carry the dirt up the hill. A few months ago he did the same thing and I cleaned off the area with my box blade and dragged the dirt up the hill. When I saw that he messed up the same area again, I pretty much lost it. There was no way I was going to clean off that area again. So the next day my wife made the skid steer operator move that dirt up the hill. After the skid steer moved the dirt, there was still residue on the ground and I had to use my box blade to clean up after them.

Unfortunately, the contractor had dumped a bunch of the dirt against our transformer and outside electrical pedestal. Because of the tight spaces, the skid steer couldn't remove the dirt by the transformer area so I spent half a day the next weekend removing the dirt myself, much of it by hand with a shovel and maddock. This picture shows the dirt I removed and placed it in our future firewood area. We instructed the contractor's workers to haul the dirt up the hill the next time they were on site.

 

[Obed]

The same day that I removed the dirt the contactor deposited at the transformer, I worked on the spot where the phone line runs into a conduit located close to the transformer. We had the top of the existing conduit covered by a yellow 5 gallon bucket. You can see the bucket surrounded by dirt. That will give you an idea how much dirt the contractor dumped by the transformer. That dirt was higher than the transformer and would have caused water to drain into the transformer if not removed.

Before we moved into the house several months ago, I had installed a conduit from the house to this spot to carry the phone line underground into the house. The phone guy ran the phone line into the conduit and put silicone caulk at the end of the phone line to keep dirt from falling into the conduit. I wasn't comfortable with the caulk solution so I decided to jimmy rig an extension to the conduit to help prevent dirt from clogging up the conduit.

So I dug out the bucket by hand that the contractor had buried with dirt. I also dug up the phone cable to the point where it was deeper in the ground. I cut a slot in the conduit with a Dremmel, slid the cable in the slot, then glued another piece of conduit to the end of the existing pipe. I sucked the pull string through the conduit extension with a wet vac. Then I put duct tape around the slot opening where the cable entered the pipe. It wasn't an elegant solution and took a lot of time to do, but I think it is better than it was.

 

[CurlyDave]

Why is this contractor still doing any work at all for you?

If he was working on my land, he would have been long gone, the first time he messed up where to put the dirt.

I would take pictures as you have done and fire him, get estimates for moving the dirt to where you told him to put it and deduct that from his bill.

Also put in a complaint to the contractor's licensing board, or whatever it is called in your state, before he has a chance to try to file a lien.

I have worked with contractors who do not follow instructions and they nearly always have an inflated opinion of the value of their substandard and not to specification work.

 

[Obed]

Why is this contractor still doing any work at all for you?

If he was working on my land, he would have been long gone, the first time he messed up where to put the dirt.

I would take pictures as you have done and fire him, get estimates for moving the dirt to where you told him to put it and deduct that from his bill.

Also put in a complaint to the contractor's licensing board, or whatever it is called in your state, before he has a chance to try to file a lien.

I have worked with contractors who do not follow instructions and they nearly always have an inflated opinion of the value of their substandard and not to specification work.

The grading contractor is done. I paid his final payment yesterday. We had a bit of a disagreement over his payment. After an extended conversation, we settled somewhere in the middle. I got signed lien releases from him, his skid steer sub, and a receipt of payment from the gravel company.

We are glad to take a break from having workers onsite for a while. We still have some more projects to do. We need to finish the back porch/deck; it is only framed at the moment. We also need to put in a stairwell to the upstairs. The porch/deck will be the next significant project. The stairwell job will come sometime after.

Obed

 

[Obed]

The topsoil that had been in the large pile was damp when the skid steer originally spread it around the yard. So we waited a few days for the dirt to dry. After the topsoil was dry, the skid steer guy came back and spread it more smoothly around the yard. He used a rock hound attachment on the skid steer to smooth out the soil and remove rocks and sticks. When I got off work, my wife and I fine tuned the grade at a couple spots that did not slope away from the house as much as I wanted.

It was scheduled to rain that evening and we wanted to get the seed and straw down before the rain. So we then worked hard and got the seed, fertilizer, lime, and straw put down as it got dark. We were able to get the entire yard finished before the rain. We got a few nice steady days of rain which did wonders for the growth of the grass.

 

[tony Cecil]

Very nice, and it always feels good when you beat the rain.....Tony ps Remember the garden for the Spring...

 

[Obed]

We had some rain this week. Subsequently I noticed silt was washing down the hill from the 4-wheeler path and was being deposited in the gravel in our parking pad. In addition, the cleared area on the hillside where the contractor had tried to use as a place to deposit extra dirt still had some residue of red clay that was also washing into our gravel.

Yesterday I decided to clean off the remaining red dirt off the hill side and do something to prevent water from the 4-wheeler path from running down to the parking pad. From years of use, the 4-wheeler path up the hill through the woods had eroded into a deep canal which caused a lot of water to run down the path toward the house location. So we used the 4-wheeler path as a spot do deposit the extra dirt from the grading work around the house.

When the contractor put the dirt on the 4-wheeler path, we ended up with mounds of dirt encompasing the edges of both sides of the path. There was now way for rain water to drain off the path so it all run to the parking pad. I did not expect the contractor to pretty up the 4-wheeler path; that's something I figured I would do. I used the box blade to remove the mounds of dirt along the edges of the path and deposited the dirt onto the path farther into the woods. I then made a berm across the path so that any water that still tried to run down the path would be forced off the path instead of continuing down to the parking pad.

The last thing I did was add some gravel to make a turn-around spot so that people wouldn't be tracking mud into our gravel when they turned around. I got my wife to help me decide where to make the turn-around spot. Both of us have gotten a little paranoid about where gravel goes so I made sure to get her opinion.

During the house build, when the original construction manager backfilled our basement walls with gravel, he sloppilly dropped gravel over 80% of the front yard. And I'm not just talking a little gravel. The whole front yard looked like a parking lot. The gravel packed into the red clay and ruined the front yard. I removed as much of the gravel with my tractor as I could but there was a lot my little tractor just couldn't get. When we did the grading job, I had the contractor remove as much of the gravel as possible.

My wife and I marked the turn-around spot with some rocks and I spread out the gravel.

When the contractor put gravel on the parking pad and on the new driveway to the basement, we tried to keep the gravel used to a minimum. It's easy to add more gravel but it's really hard to remove gravel from someplace you don't want it. Thus, we have a large pile of gravel onsite that we bought during the excavation job to use for "whatever".

 

[brin]

Obed...First your house and land look wonderful...you guys have really worked hard and I have followed every bit...congratulations on a job well done..

On the 7th picture - 2nd on on the 2nd row..is that dirt trail the 4 wheeler path ? The incline going down to your gravel pad ...seems to me you will be better off graveling at least the bottom 50 ft. or so to stop the wash of red clay etc. from rains...It would be ideal to have a drain across the road...like a cattle gap where you could walk over it and drive over it but water would drain down instead of washing onto your pad..

Here is an image of a cattle gap...Image Search Results for cattle gap

It does not have to be for cattle and could be made with 4 inch pipe ...or even ground contact treated wood..to suit your purpose...Maybe I am all wrong ...if so someone will let us know...LOL

Again, really a great job and adventure..

 

[Obed]

Obed...First your house and land look wonderful...you guys have really worked hard and I have followed every bit...congratulations on a job well done..

Thanks brin. Now that the yard is growing grass and we've gotten rid of the mountains of dirt, I'm really pleased at how the outside is starting to look. I have to say that getting the grading work finished has been quite a relief. It was a lot of hassle and a lot of work.

On the 7th picture - 2nd on on the 2nd row..is that dirt trail the 4 wheeler path ?

The incline going down to your gravel pad ...seems to me you will be better off graveling at least the bottom 50 ft. or so to stop the wash of red clay etc. from rains...It would be ideal to have a drain across the road...like a cattle gap where you could walk over it and drive over it but water would drain down instead of washing onto your pad..

Here is an image of a cattle gap...Image Search Results for cattle gap

It does not have to be for cattle and could be made with 4 inch pipe ...or even ground contact treated wood..to suit your purpose...Maybe I am all wrong ...if so someone will let us know...LOL

The 4-wheeler path through the woods should no longer wash dirt down the hill. Plus, it will eventually pack down and get covered with leaves. The cleared area beside the parking pad used to consist of a hard pebbly substance that really didn't cause dirt washing issues. That's why I was so extremely unhappy when the contractor covered the entire area with dirt. I'm hoping that eventually the area will return to its original make-up after the rain packs down the soil and washes the loose stuff away. I removed with my BB as much of the dirt the contractor deposited as I could in an attempt to restore the area to it's original make up. The consistency of the soil was not good for growth so it naturally resisted weeds and brush growth.

Obed

 

[brin]

I'm hoping that eventually the area will return to its original make-up after the rain packs down the soil and washes the loose stuff away

Obed, I see what you mean..it will go back natural in time..I have some trails just like it and once the natural growth begins the washing will stop...

 

[Obed]

Here's a picture of the view from my desk as I write this post. I'm looking at the front yard. Up the hill you can see the grass growing in the clearing where next year's garden will go. The fall colors are really pretty. The hard work is starting to pay off.

 

[B7510HSD]

Here's a picture of the view from my desk as I write this post. I'm looking at the front yard. Up the hill you can see the grass growing in the clearing where next year's garden will go. The fall colors are really pretty. The hard work is starting to pay off.

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[brin]

What a beautiful view...We built our house about 6 yrs. ago... very similar to yours...and I have a similar view from my office...I mean our houses are very alike...

 

[Diamondpilot]

Looking great. By next summer that little girl will be playing in that yard.

Chris

 

[Obed]

Here are pictures I took yesterday. The place is starting to look less like a junk heap. We still have stuff to pick up but it's getting better. This past weekend I looked around and actually thought the place looked pretty.

My wife made a walkway to the front door using wood chips. It is a temporary measure until we do something more permanent, perhaps with pavers. Note: You can see our old cat on the front porch steps. She's still hanging around. It has been almost a year and a half since I poisoned her.

I'm liking the view up and down the driveway with the fall colors. In one of the pictures you can see the red handle of the water spigot for the garden that we installed for the garden. I'm very happy we thought to do that. After planting the grass, I can't imagine the thoughts of tearing up the yard to run the water pipes.

We have much more grass to mow than I had forseen. I had thought that being in the middle of the woods would result in a much smaller yard than if we were in a subdivision. It turns out that our back yard is fairly large. We might plant some rhododendrons or something similar on the steepest part of the back yard as it approaches the woods in order to reduce the mowing area.

This past week my wife planted a small herb garden. She tells me it will get larger. This is just the start.

 

[Obed]

Please forgive me for jumping back and forth in telling the grading job story. I know it's a little confusing as I go back and forth from the present to the past. However, it was the only way I could get you guys caught up current events. So, I'm continuing the story from where I left off here.

After getting the grass sowed on the yard on a Monday, we focused on getting the slope of the parking pad outside the garage the way we wanted it. The week before, I had measured the grade of the parking pad using with my 10' PVC 2" pipe with a level on the pipe. The parking pad measures 30' x 40'. The 15' closest to the garage had no slope; it was level according to my crude pipe and level measurement. The 15' section farthest from the garage had all the elevation drop. What this meant was rainwater next to the house would soak through the gravel and not run away from the garage. Keep in mind, the whole reason we were re-grading the parking pad was to get it to slope away from the house. There was still a lot of dirt that needed to be scraped off the pad and hauled off!

When I talked the the contractor, he wouldn't believe my measurements. He claimed my PVC pipe would bend and that there was no way that I could measure the grade properly. So he got out his transit and started measuring. He walked around the pad quickly taking measurements by eyeballing his measuring rod while leaving the end off the ground and estimating how many inches the rod was off the ground. When I wouldn't accept his measurements and made him slow down and take accurate measurements, I eventually proved to him using his transit that my crude pipe and level measurements were correct. The 15 foot section closest to the house was level. So he got on his machine and took off more dirt. Then he had the skid steer guy clean up behind him and haul off the dirt.

I have run into the same reaction from other subs on the house building job when I measured the levelness of their work with my crude methods. For example, I had discovered that the main floor of our house was going to be 3/4" out of level by using a water level I made with a clear plastic hose and a water bucket. When I informed the original framer about the issue, he claimed that his laser level was more accurate and that my water level couldn't be trusted. It turned out that my water level measurements were right and I made the framer fix the leveling issues. The reality is, if you do things correctly and don't cause a vapor lock or undue water friction, water will always flow down hill and water bubbles will always move uphill. How do people think the NYC skyscrapers were built before lasers and electronics existed? However, it's a hopeless task to try to explain these things to some people.

So after the contractor took more dirt off the parking pad, I took more measurements with my pipe and level. I determined that at the end of our pad, we had a low spot that would not drain water. We may eventually pour concrete on the parking pad so we can't have water seeping through the gravel to a low spot under the concrete. I told the contractor on the phone about the issue and he agree he would fix that low spot before we put down gravel.

This brings us to the time of the pictures in this post. The first picture shows my wife adding some dirt near the house where the skid steer had taken off a little too much dirt near the house. Later that day we got some steady rain. Sure enough, a pond developed exactly where my "unreliable" pipe and level measurements had indicated were low areas. So for the next couple weeks, after each rain softened the top inch or so of hard red clay, I would use my box blade to remove dirt from the parking pad. I made a pile of dirt and made the contractor haul the dirt off into the woods when he came back to put down the gravel.

Even though the contractor had agreed to fix the low spot, I just didn't trust him to do it the way I wanted it so I did the work myself. Since this same scene happened time and time again while building our house, I've concluded that we are obviously way more picky that most of the contractor's customers. I don't apologize for being this way; I just recognize that's the way things are. Other people can close their eyes and just hope the builders do a good job; I couldn't do it. If I had closed my eyes, the plumbing drain pipes under our basement concrete floor would have run uphill instead of down hill. I'm not kidding; this really occurred. I could list many other such examples but won't.

The last picture shows the parking pad area just before the gravel arrived. You can see marks in the ground caused by the box blade scarifiers. We had delayed putting gravel on the parking pad about 3 weeks later than the contractor had intended. That gave me time to grade the area to the slope I wanted and gave time for the rain to pack the soil before the gravel arrived. We eventually got the pad the way we wanted it.

I'm being open about the issues we had with the grading contractor's work. What you may not be hearing much are his positive qualities. He's really not a bad guy. He has done some good things for us. He built our road/driveway and did an excellent job on it. He has been extremely busy these six months and in reality didn't have the time to devote exclusively to us. All the contractors are busy in this area because of the hail storm we got in April. I heard that 150,000 houses around here are getting new roofs. Plus there was a lot of siding and window damage. Did we get a great job done during the yard grading work? No. I would rate the quality low. In the end did we get things the way we wanted them? Yes, it just took a lot of our own time. That's not all bad. I got plenty of seat time!