Monday, May 30, 2011

Berm

Before Photo
 It is Memorial Day here in the US.  For the Canadians reading this think May 24 but a week later.

Since I had a 3 day weekend I decided to take on a project that has been needing to be done since I moved in.  Specifically I needed to find a way to stop the erosion along my back fence line.  I have a creek in my back yard that occasionally floods.  I also get a lot of water flow through my backyard when it rains, and it is chipping away at the bank.

  A landscaper who goes to my church suggested that we build a berm to slow down the water, and an armored channel (made of rock) to drain the excess water into the creek.  This weekend my wife, Zeke and I built such a berm, and to make it less of an eyesore, we made it into a raised garden.

It is a surprisingly large amount of work to build a berm.  I moved 1.3 tons of rock, and 6(ish) cubic yards of soil into place, not to mention the mulch.  It took us part of Friday, all day Saturday and all Monday afternoon to complete the project.  We took Sunday off, not cause of the Sabbath (cause a) Sabbath is on Saturday, b) I'm not Jewish and c) New Covenent - woohoo!), but because we ran out of dirt :) (We spent Sunday afternoon caching and listening to music in Banner Elk NC, up in the mountains - my wife's blog has more information)

So right now we are incredibly tired, very sore, but in our back yard is the results of a long weekends labour.  I present to you, the BearBerm(tm)

After Photo