Storm runoff details and the shed

This may not look like a retention pond, but that's what it is.

We were told by the good folks at Buncomb County that we needed a retention pond to handle

storm water runoff.  But, since we didn't have room for such a pond, our

engineer in charge (my son Trip) designed a substitute pond to hold runoff and release it gradually.

Very clever idea.

The pipe is 30 inches in diameter, and sufficiently long to have enough volume to do the trick.

It will be capped eventually (you can see the part of the cap in the lower left corner) to make

it a true water holder.  The cap has a hole to allow the held water to dribble safely away.

The top of the pipe has an emergency overflow cutout.

Here is the entrance to the storm water reservoir.

The trick is to slowly discharge water without getting sediment in the pipe. 
Trip has already shoveled out sediment once from this pipe and to prevent a revisit of that

he designed this sediment/kid/assorted animal barrier.  This was hard going in hot weather.

Its good to have our own engineer on the project.

8:30 A.M. and we are on the road again.
This shows the new ditch that Justin (our very own road builder) recently dug.
The Rock Pile is on the right in the background, Matt is down the line.
We are getting ready to rake this ditch smooth.

We got it raked.  Matt is yet again unrolling more mat.
Seed is already down.

Homo habilis pounding wire pins with tool of choice.

Showing proper technique using Neolithic mans favorite (and only) tool

(we forgot to bring the hammers again)

By noon we're done.

Literally and figuratively.  Since we have been working contrary to all heat advisorys, like

a couple of illegal aliens we decided lunch should be Mexican.

Along about 3 oclock our prayers are answered.  It is starting to rain (storm?)

sending us mercifully home.

Hope the improvements can pass the test.

Barbara, Matt, and Ashlee are adding rock to the check dams on the last stretch of road to the top of the property.  In the foreground is a roll of straw matting, used to hold the grass seed in place.
 These banks on the right are going to need some care...later.

A lot of mat has been set out.  You can see the good coverage we have on the lower fill side of the road.

Matt with yet more mat

.The project seems unending.

Electrical conduit tubes are in the background

A couple of supervisors.

a couple of workers.

Gathering up tools, dogs, and soon Barbara and me.

It is starting to rain and we are going.

Hopefully it will be a good steady drizzle to pop that seed, sans wash.

Working the land

We had a flash flood and some erosion on the sides of our new road   We have been working to fix the problems.  The hillside banks are raw so they are getting grass seed and matting.  It has been raining with some regularity and we are hoping that the seed will sprout and the grass will live through the rest of the summer.It's a bad tome to be planting grass.

Hauling rock in the Kabota.  This will be used for checkdams on the side of the road to slow down the water.  The road is steep and the water flows fast.

Everything is hot.  The weather, the rocks, the worker. 

Respit from the heat.  This pipe, which was put in to help control storm water runoff, has at the other end a spring.   The water has been flowing for over a month now, ever since the pipe was set, and the water is cool and tasty.

Sunset View

After my soccer game last Sunday, Tiff and I took the kids up to the property to watch the sun go down. We were glad we did, it was so beautiful!

Driveway, check!

One huge part of our infinite to-do list on this property is complete. There is now a driveway in place. Vehicles can drive to all three of the building sites. This is very exciting to me, because I can now take friends and family up to where Trip and I will eventually build a house without a strenuous uphill hike.

Next on the to-do list is the shed being built at our garden site. The views are phenomenal from this spot, but there isn't a shady place to enjoy them from. Because of this, the shed will also have a porch to sit and rest on. I plan to spend a lot of time rocking on the porch while everyone else works in the garden. I'm kidding (mostly).

There are a couple garden beds in front of the shed that Barbara has already planted vegetables in. We've got asparagus and tomatoes growing, among other things. The plan is to build many more beds like this throughout the garden site.

The vineyard will be on one side of the garden. It is hard to see in the picture below, but there are grapes planted where the orange flags are.

The apple orchard will be on the other side. Here is one of several of the apple trees that have been planted.

Trip noticed that we already have neighbors. Check out how big these bear tracks are!

And finally, here is a photo of all the Kinnaird men taking a scenic tour of the property on the Kubota. What a motley bunch!

Long overdue update

Here is a picture of what the view looked like from our property back in February:

This is a "before" picture of the garden site also taken in February. John, Barbara, Trip, Matt and Ashlee have put in quite a bit of work here since then and have begun building a shed. Pictures will go up soon of the shed and what the garden site looks like now.
We fell in love with this property the first time we saw it back in November. Right now, everything is green and it is so much easier to see the possibilities. I am excited about living up here one day. Also, the driveway is almost complete. Current pictures coming soon....