Covering a Mess

Front Yard Project - May 2004

Close up of the "rubble facing" that our next door neighbor's contractor used to cover and prevent erosion of the earth they'd piled up to create a driveway leading to his new garage.

Rocks, bricks, pieces of cement blocks, rebar hanging out, and concrete oozing here and there.

Not a pretty sight from our side...And this is after I'd daubed three different shades of earth colored paints on the white stuff.

Hard to believe...

This is how they buttressed the steepest part of that mess.

A 10 inch wide piece of 3/4" plywood propped behind two junk trees....

(Did a building inspector ever see this?)

Fortunately, when it rots out in a few years the avalanche will miss our property.

I planted 16 Arborvitae bushes (mostly six footers) to break up the view. In a few years they should grow enough to mask all of it.

The arrow is pointing to a rock too darned big for me to want to try and dig out.

That rock was flat and just asking to have something carved on it.

Out came my angle grinder with a masonry wheel in it and an electric drill with a 5/16" carbide bit.

I memorialized the project by inscribing the year the bushes got planted.

Thankfully, the Roman number 2004 could be made with just straight lines.

Postscript: July 2009....Can't hardly see
that ugly mess can you?

The carved rock is still there, but the tree
which was right next to it is no more....