Our landscape team showed up bright and early this morning to start on Operation Yard Drainage. We had hit a small glitch in our original plan, since part of it depended on the cooperation of our next-door neighbors (not Alison). See, the original plan involved digging the drainage system in our back yard and connecting it to an existing ditch between our house and our neighbor's, straightening and widening that ditch, and cutting away part of the curb at the street so the water has a clear path to drain. However, a good portion of that ditch lies on the neighbor's property, so the landscape company required that we have a signed form from the neighbor saying it was ok for us to work on that ditch. No financial responsibility whatsoever, just a yes, you can dig in our ditch. Phil stood on their front porch for about 30 minutes in the freezing cold trying to get that guy's permission. Unfortunately, he thinks that our project will make his drainage problem worse, so he was not willing to give us his permission to dig in his ditch. Phil explained to him (a whole lot more politely than I would have, I'm sure) that even without his permission, we would still be going ahead with this project, we would just dig another ditch, a few feet over from his, that would be entirely on our land. The man then proceeded to offer his "expert" opinion (expert=10 years in excavation business): this hare-brained project of ours would never work and we were wasting our money. At that, Phil bid him a good evening and came back home. He did say that he would think about it and call us later, and that he would really like to speak with the landscaper himself but would be leaving town this morning, and would we mind waiting until he came back to town to do this? Yeah, sure, buddy. You have been so accomodating to us, we would be happy to call our landscaper and tell them to cancel the tractor they have lined up, and tell them to put off until next week sometime. I don't think so. We did this as a COURTESY to you, since digging out that nasty ditch will certainly do nothing but improve your drainage situation. Never mind, pal. We will just dig a new ditch. Which is exactly what we did.
They started the big dig near our back fence and angled it toward the back left corner of the house. The holes filled with water as fast as they could dig. The contractor said it was coming UP from underneath. She thinks we may also have underground springs, as well as bad runoff.
The realized pretty quickly that all that water was going to have to have somewhere to go, so what they did was left about 6 feet of the path un-dug until they could dig out to the street. After they dug our brand new ditch, they came back to the back and connected the areas they had previously dug up.
This is our spankin' new ditch. To the left is our neighbor's poor, sad, untouched-by-our-landscapers ditch. When they get to the "finishing" stage, they are going to angle the sides and line it with flat stones, to make it prettier.
I was thrilled to pieces to see all that water running down the ditch, jumping the curb, and then washing away down the street. They are going to cut the curb down right there at the end, so the water doesn't have to jump any hurdles on it's way out. They left about 45 minutes ago and the water is continuing to drain into the street. Thrilled, I tell you. I hope our neighbor notices all that water leaving our yard, since this project will never work.
They guys will be back bright and early again tomorrow to dig Part II of the main system in the back. I will be interested to see if the water is still flowing out in the morning, or if it is standing in the various holes in the yard.
The realized pretty quickly that all that water was going to have to have somewhere to go, so what they did was left about 6 feet of the path un-dug until they could dig out to the street. After they dug our brand new ditch, they came back to the back and connected the areas they had previously dug up.
This is our spankin' new ditch. To the left is our neighbor's poor, sad, untouched-by-our-landscapers ditch. When they get to the "finishing" stage, they are going to angle the sides and line it with flat stones, to make it prettier.
I was thrilled to pieces to see all that water running down the ditch, jumping the curb, and then washing away down the street. They are going to cut the curb down right there at the end, so the water doesn't have to jump any hurdles on it's way out. They left about 45 minutes ago and the water is continuing to drain into the street. Thrilled, I tell you. I hope our neighbor notices all that water leaving our yard, since this project will never work.
They guys will be back bright and early again tomorrow to dig Part II of the main system in the back. I will be interested to see if the water is still flowing out in the morning, or if it is standing in the various holes in the yard.
1 comment:
Not that I would ever wish ill on anyone, but I hope all that muddy water is running right in front of his house so that his shoes get muddy and he tracks it in on his carpet. So, there.
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