Wow, now you'll need some pigs to help you gley the ponds. . .
Strong work Evan, can't wait to see what you do next. I'm not smart enough to intuit why your retaining walls were less than perfect. Could you explain it to me like I'm 8?
I guess "retaining wall" can refer to several different parts of an earth-integrated structure. The ~7' tall walls made of lumber that hold back the earth from coming into the inside of my house, which one could call retaining walls, seem to be plenty sturdy, holding back tons of earth just fine. The ~2' tall walls made of lumber that hold back the earth on my roof from falling off my roof and down into my patios, those retaining walls are doing just fine as well. But the retaining walls made of vertical logs in the ground, that sort of define the slope of the earth from the ground to the roof, that are supposed to hold back the earth from tumbling down into my patios from the edges of the berms, are just about 2 ft too short. They don't go up to meet the retaining walls on my roof but instead stop at the top of the 7' wall, leaving basically a 2 ft gap. I spent a lot of time thinking about how to shape these retaining walls and get them to curve and angle the way I wanted, and in hindsight I was mistaken to the extent that I neglected to fully integrate them into the rest of the structure, rather than (perhaps at least subconsciously) thinking of them almost as a separate project, or at least somewhat of an afterthought. It's too late to dig them up whole and replace them, (or at least I really would strongly prefer not to) though they are less protected and built to last than the other parts that could be called retaining walls, and it's sort of been the plan all along to add lots of rocks to make little stone retaining walls outside of, behind, and above the log retaining walls. But another problem with the log retaining walls is that in hindsight I don't really like the way I made their little micro-roofs angle, nor really the whole way I hastily nailed up those wood shakes that were theoretically supposed to help keep the retaining wall logs dry but in hindsight really aren't enough of an overhang. So... I will have to think about how to fix this. At the moment I'm not totally sure. Maybe I can get away with just building lots of stone retaining walls and little terraces to gentle the slope out. Perhaps lots of cutting and fastening extra wood bits to extend the tops. Maybe build in a bunch of little bird houses, mason bee houses, bat houses, little wood sculptures or something, etc. Eventually though, it will look like I meant to do it. Hopefully.
In the meantime it will still look tarpy but be mostly functional enough.
Y2, Summer (48)
Meanwhile, all my neighbors are working hard on building some awesome houses of their very own. One of the best things about ant village is that everyone gets the opportunity to learn from not only their own successes and failures, but also from everyone else's too. The constant exchange of new ideas and new data from all the different concurrent experiments in close proximity is super fun! I'm happy to call these folks my neighbors.
Kai made some shakes out of larch and used them to cover the drip edge and retaining wall of the roof of his house, Yonder. He's got a layer of sod up there now!
evan l pierce wrote:Y2, Summer (47)
looking north from jefferson exclave, southern border fence of Avalon, terraces, Yonder, outdoor kitchen complex, future amphitheatre and tropical greenhouse site
sweeping from west to east from stage of lower Avalon, future gardens, Yonder, tropical greenhouse, amphitheatre, outdoor kitchen complex, Eveningwood, Siesta
sweeping from south to west from future amphitheatre, Eveningwood, future gardens, stage above dancing lake, terraces, amphitheatre
Evan, I love it! So many cool place names! Jesse also bopped the video camera through here briefly when you weren't looking. I had a strong feeling of deja vu when I saw it. Then I found this pic of Anarcadeah from last Oct.
Is that area covered in flora by now?
Did you and Kai happen to sketch any little plan/map when you designed all this? It'd be fun to visualize how it is all positioned together. Is it still roughly like this map from last winter?
Also, I was thinking Kai's house had an uphill terrace and was (partially?) buried before (or maybe just had walls?). Is this Yonder the same house from last winter/spring? I cannot find the pic I think I'm remembering. (Hi! Kai. Congrats on shakes+roof turf and garden!)
Evan, I had this slice of PIE and asked myself: what to do with it? Now I know: I gave it to this topic because you show so many photos of what you are doing!
"Also, just as you want men to do to you, do the same way to them" (Luke 6:31)
Evan and Kaie have nurtured Tejas into a beautiful slice of paradise! I can't wait to see how they further sculpt the recent earthworks into works of art!
I just read this whole thread (in a few sittings) and WOW! What a delight to follow along with your adventure, Evan. Thank you thank you thank you for the time and obvious care you put into keeping us all updated (and for the humorous photo captions too). I can't wait to see what comes next.
im probably a year late and a$ short ,but here goes ; the only thing you need to keep deer out is some short posts big enough to hold insulators for solar power electrick fence
fence charger and the yellow and black cord -wire to go around the garden about 4 ft high . string the wire and fasten triangles of tinfoil painted with peanut butter about every 6 ft.
sniff sniff the toung reaches for a lick the deer comes about 2 ft off the ground with every hair on end. and they dont come back .then in the fall take the fence away and sow turnips . and be ready in the evening to harvest some good protein.
to stand sileent and be considered a fool or to speak and remove all doubt
The mullein is one of the greatest plants, because it can grow all alone in an arid infertile soil and is the first one to colonize unused basebal fields, but you shouldn't have the tea (a metal tonic) very often, says the FDA.
Thanks Kerry! As for Anarcadeah, it sure is much more covered in flora now than it was when that picture was taken. Compare that picture with the one below.
As for plans and maps, well, yes somewhat, but a lot seems to get revised on-the-fly once the excavator starts moving dirt around. I'm getting better at estimating how big of a mound here corresponds to how big of a crater over there, but I still find myself surprised often. I hope to find the time to make an updated map before too long.
Yonder is still over yonder and still has uphill terraces, but instead of wood and earth-berming, Kai decided to go with monolithic cob for his walls. It's turning out beautifully!
Thanks for the pie, Inge! Thanks for the pictures, Janet! Thanks for the kind words, Katy! Thanks everyone who's been following along! And a whole bucketful of thanks to all y'all awesome folks who've been supporting us on Patreon even though my posts have been sparse lately!
Y2, Summer (49)
Anarcadeah still has some bare earth showing, but it's pretty lush in there. The clover is especially thick!
Kai's making a cob house! He built a solid foundation of stones on which to build the cob walls.
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