This was our first full year of living on on our land at Hound Hill in our bus. The frosty winter scene above was photographed February 1, 2008. Gary's first project of the year was to finish the pump house (left). Then he started a garden shed that turned into our cabin up the hill behind the bus. You can read about all that on the CABIN pages.
While Gary worked on his building projects I tackled cleaning the woods behind the bus. I had never before done gardening on this scale. It was a real challenge, especially because of the awful invasive vines with thorns that had taken over. My Christmas gift that year was a chain saw that was put to good use cutting down the many stick trees that had grown everywhere. Part of my pile can be seen below.
On February 1 we awoke to an ice storm. Winters are generally mild but once or twice a year we do get hit with some rough weather. It was beautiful but we were worried about damage to our trees. But, by mid afternoon the sun had melted it all and we were back to normal.
While Gary worked on his building projects I tackled cleaning the woods behind the bus. I had never before done gardening on this scale. It was a real challenge, especially because of the awful invasive vines with thorns that had taken over. My Christmas gift that year was a chain saw that was put to good use cutting down the many stick trees that had grown everywhere. Part of my pile can be seen below.
On February 1 we awoke to an ice storm. Winters are generally mild but once or twice a year we do get hit with some rough weather. It was beautiful but we were worried about damage to our trees. But, by mid afternoon the sun had melted it all and we were back to normal.
My woods cleaning project completed! What a difference. Next project tackling the hillside with all the plastic blown to to bits. We lost a few smaller trees. This area gets blasted with cold wind in winter. I just ripped up the plastic and threw it away. This was the first of many mistakes I would make. In following years we wrapped the trees with burlap until they were established.
I have always loved those Civil War zigzag fences and thought one would like nice coming up our driveway to separate our land from the boxwood field. I practiced using some of the small trees I cut down to surround a nasty brush pile. (Photo right top below.) In the photo to the right you can see the stack of fence rails that we will use to build the fence up the road. And the finished result below.We found someone selling split rail logs and bought a decent amount (center top picture below). Things were warming up and the daffodil bulbs I put in last fall started to bloom. Spring is beautiful in the mountains.
I have always loved those Civil War zigzag fences and thought one would like nice coming up our driveway to separate our land from the boxwood field. I practiced using some of the small trees I cut down to surround a nasty brush pile. (Photo right top below.) In the photo to the right you can see the stack of fence rails that we will use to build the fence up the road. And the finished result below.We found someone selling split rail logs and bought a decent amount (center top picture below). Things were warming up and the daffodil bulbs I put in last fall started to bloom. Spring is beautiful in the mountains.
Fence complete and onto the next project, a stone patio for the bus. The pile of stones shown below are what we used to build the patio. Stone is mined and plentiful in this area, but not especially inexpensive. Until this point we had had our yard furniture on the road gravel which was uncomfortable and a mess. We started by have a large load of sand dumped on in the area and then we leveled that off to start laying the stone. The dogs loved the sand (by this point we had added two more hounds to Hound Hill- Bob and Dixie Belle.) Gary had to help me with this project as the stone was very heavy. We needed to build a wall to get the patio level so we stacked up the thinner smaller stones. This was my project
Here comes trouble! Ernie, hound #5 arrives. Buddy and Marge check him out and he passes the test. The first thing Ernie did on his arrival was jump in the new dog watering hole for a bath.
Below are some late spring blooms. Mountain Laurel is all over our land and a beautiful bus was growing right next to our patio.
Moving on to the next project. We bought this cool little shed that looks like an outhouse to hide the water cistern. It came complete with all the tools and waders. This corner was my project for the summer of '08 and it is now one of favorite garden spots filled with hosta and hydrangea. Gary made the little wood bridge over the dry creek bed for water run off.
Drainage for run off from the mountain is very important to prevent erosion and road wash out. We occasionally get torrential down pours and the amount of water runs down hill like a rushing creek. We have installed pipes under ground and ditches to keep the water flowing nicely downhill and away from our roads and living area. The photo to the right shows open another drainage ditch that runs along our road and parking lot.
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Wow! I feel like we accomplished a lot this year. It's now late October and time to head to Rochester for another holiday season at Craft Company. Not only did we make great progress on our land, we also grew our family considerably.
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Click the links to learn more . . . about us
BUS CONVERSION 1 BUS COMPLETED BUS-BARN CABIN BARN WOOD SHOP LAND Have a question or comment? Email: lynn@gonecountry.me That's our handsome Basset Hound Buddy Ray in the photo. Buddy Ray now resides at Rainbow Bridge. |
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