kontextmaschine:

Yard Task Update

Task: Days Spent/Days Budgeted

tasks done this update in bold

(Completed tasks in parentheses)

3/21/23

• (Polesawing: 7.5/3.5)
• Wood rack: 0/3
• Raise retaining wall: 1/3
• (Sandbox 1.25/2)
• (Uphill bamboo: 2.875/3)
• Downhill bamboo 2/4
• (Post-fall polesawing 1/1)
• (Trimming 2022 growth: 2.75/3)

Okay, Blueberry Hill has settled enough it doesn’t really need another flight of stones, so it’s not so much raising as shoring up the retaining wall, the unmortared stones placed two years ago are starting to bulge out, the original mud around them washed away.

So I dug up a bunch of dirt from the back yard where a ramp got filled in with decades of leaves, added water and mixed it with sand and dry dead grass, and applied it in the joints between the stones.

It was iffy getting the viscosity right but I found I could pour light mud fractions out into a pile of pine needles to solidify it and leave me with thicker stuff. Gotta get some more in between stones down the line then I drape a nylon net over it weighed down by the branches I got there, anchor it into the dirt between the stones with pairs of disposable chopsticks, cover the whole thing smooth over in more mud, and then plant Alpine strawberries in it so they send out runners across strands of the net.

And then stones being pushed out of place will be held in by the net that’ll be held in place by the network of runners that’ll be held in place by where they touch down and set new roots.