(My apologies to those who goggled the words in the title looking for something about the rapture or the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012…this is the end of a project I’ve touched on in my blog from time to time!)
A short entry today (and one not about politics, philosophy or economics), to show some more pictures. We have completely buried our drainage system, put loam over 80% of the yard, reshaping it, and have put crushed stone to remake our driveway (since the sand and loam had buried the original gravel). Moreover, Ryan and Dana’s play house is almost done, and their swing set in our new clearing in the back woods completed. A costly, labor intensive set of projects but we’ll enjoy the result for years.
Here is the drive way, with some room to turn around (since we live at the end of the road): 
And here is the front yard, with only a sliver of the original lawn remaining:
And this is a view of the back yard, which now has two sections. The first is the clearing, with the play house and the swing set. The second is the picture below — which will be seeded hopefully next week. You can see a small portion of lawn remains:
And from the other direction you can look into the clearing, and see the play house and the swing set:
This project, besides inspiring a few blog posts, has dominated the summer, from cutting down over 60 trees (some small and dead) to make the clearing, having three large fires (requiring fire permits) to deal with the branches and brush we couldn’t salvage for fire wood, raking, pulling stumps, filling in stump holes, and of course having Uncle Sasha do carpenter work to build the play house and swing set. Then it was dig the trench (with an excavator) fill it with rock, a pipe, fabric, more rock, and sand, and then cover that and most of the yard with a layer of sand, and then loam. And finally, on August 8th, the driveway (quite a difference from the pictures I posted last week). Small things left to do, but it’s exciting to see a project near completion — especially one that grew much larger than anticipated!
World in Motion 
#1 by Jeff Lees on August 9, 2009 - 03:41
Last time I was there it looked like The Battle of the Somme. But it looks great now! And you originally thought it would take 2 day, lol.
#2 by henitsirk on August 10, 2009 - 03:25
Looks great! And what an experience for your kids to see all that hard work (and fun tools and equipment, of course!)
#3 by Mike Lovell on August 10, 2009 - 15:54
The re-invention of your plot of land looks like it will be a great place. I’m sure you’re kids will enjoy it so much more….well, until the boy finds out the lawn mowing a few years down the road will end up being his responsibility, then he’ll be arguing for more rock piles to coat the yard!
#4 by Scott Erb on August 10, 2009 - 20:28
Yeah, and believe me, I look forward to the day the boys find out they have to handle those chores. The lawn should, however, be much easier to mow. The ground had settled and was full of rocks and uneven. But I only mowed the full yard once this year, and I’ll be happy if the new seed allows a second time!