|
|||||||
February 17, 2008new dirt towards spring
The part of the backyard that used to be behind the fence and in the alley that we reclaimed last spring has finally been given a layer of topsoil and seeded. Getting the dirt has been an on&off project for easily the past 5 months, somehow. 6 Responses to “new dirt towards spring”Leave a Comment |
RECENT COMMENTSjohn m on dry run for the rain barrel
cmchwms on dry run for the rain barrel
Jim on dry run for the rain barrel
suzanne on dry run for the rain barrel
john m on dry run for the rain barrel
RECENT POSTSSEARCHARCHIVESCATEGORIES
|
||||||
hooray! yardwork!
That dark topsoil looks great for planting edible green plants! I can’t remember; how deep was the hole before you started adding dirt? What are your plans for the cemented section?
Great start on spring!
It sloped from yard level down to the alley, at the same level as the floor of the cement pad.
The cement pad will somehow become a lovely and fantastic sunken garden grotto.
Looks like a great foundation for a shop.
i found your website totally by accident. it has kept me reading for the past 8 hours. i am totally impressed with the work you and your wife have done. it is incredible and so beautiful. i learned about a folk victorian and a few other things. thank you.
i live on the iowa side of the area south of rochester minnesota which is home to mayo clinic. i’ve lived in this area basically all my life. i’ve never left the midwest to visit or tour. the biggest city i have ever been in are the twin cities minneapolis and st. paul. my daughter went to college in sioux city iowa which is on the missouri river. here there are some big house and they are beautuful. in sioux city they had fabulous home in city blocks that you could tell had built ins and oak wood everywhere. they were in the downtown area and they were the 1s and the house kept going out as the city enlarged to the brand new developments that were 10s. the ones are in desparate need of repair as they were emptied as the city moved to the new houses. there are houses there that have 3rd floor ballrooms in them. it’s a packing plant town and full of dirt and filth. the downtown areas have all been demolished and fancy and dancy moved in. malls are springing up everywhere. this is the only area i’ve ever seen that has house that compare to the ones you showed on your blog.
here we have what are referred to as prarie farm houses. very plain. then the small towns here have what i’d now call the folk victorian. but they are about half the size of your house. they are gorgous though.
what amazes me is that there are so many empty houses in your neighborhood. here in our area the houses are all pretty much occupied and salable. we find a few foreclosures but you don’t see the blocks and blocks of empty houses. i always though housing out east was hard to get. that lead me to assume that there was a shortage of houses. that was why the government built the housing units. we have those here in iowa too but they’re a lot smaller. could you give me the 10 second lesson on how screwed up i am in my thinking?
but do give your wife a hug and kiss and let her know how lucky you are to have her. remodeling a house has been said to cause divorces–not marriages. i have friends who divorced over this so i feel it is a fact. keep your good work up and much good luck
Hey Colleen!
Thanks for the nice words! Working on the house has really been an experience for us.
Our part of the city got wasted by a couple of things. This is a historically racially mixed area, but back in the day there were still borders, black areas & white areas. Desegregation of the schools led to a generation of the white neighbors moving to the brand new suburbs in the 1950s. The projects came in when some of the older neighborhoods that had fallen into disrepair were cleared as part of urban renewal back in the 1950s and 1960s. Finally, the crack epidemic was not kind to our area either; certain neighborhoods in Richmond had a crazy murder rate for most of the 1980s and 1990s, and our area was one of them.
We still have a ways to go, but there is real momentum. Houses that have been vacant for 20+ years are being fixed up and new families are moving in.
Check back this summer, we’ve got some great plans for when we have the time and weather.