Sysadmin Field Notes

September 20, 2004

I realized I never posted pictures of the stump grinding results. So here are pictures of the stump grinder. Quite the effort. But the stumps were gone, and just these last two weekends I tore down the old decrepit fence you see in the background of these pictures. 130 feet worth or so. Blech. But the cool part is that this is the first thing we've done that's made the backyard look better, rather than worse. We finally reached rock bottom and are clawing our way back up. A timeline for those not familiar with the saga is in order (not sure about some of the dates).

• We move in (Jan 2002); backyard is nondescript, but servicable. Back fence needs replacing though.
  
• We buy a dog (miles)
  
• Miles eats the sprinkler valves and some sprinkler heads, causing 2-3 months of an arms race consisting of frequent sprinkler repair and ever more elaborate schemes to protect the valves from damage.
  
• Cyndie's mom keeps the garden alive by manual watering, add some ghetto chicken wire to keep miles out.
  
• Add ghetto chicken wire all around the falling down fence to keep miles in.
  
• End of summer 2002, we give up on the sprinklers. Grass starts to die, but returns with the rains. We don't mow it, it gets way out of control, then dies from getting trampled by the dog.
  
• Decide miles needs the sideyard/dog run to be where he hangs out, start by clearing gravel (move it to the other side yard). Add 2 yards of dirt and grass seed.
  
• Garden shows its first crop, corn is disappointing but tomatoes show promise.
  
• During our tile project, we discover that the big crack in the concrete patio is from a root under there.
  
• Learn we are not responsible enough to maintain grass w/o automatic sprinklers. Miles' side-yard grass dies and is replaced by 5 foot high weeds.
  
• Spring comes, grass dies without water.
  
• Dig out all the dirt in Miles' side yard, move it to the other side yard, and replace it with gravel, and a canopy to keep him cool.
  
• Cyndie's mom leaves, we stop watering, killing the garden (except for the tomatoes), and miles is given free reign of the garden area.
  
• Miles' canopy dies in the rain and is thrown away.
  
• Summer 2003, rip out the 18 or so ugly bushes inhabiting the back fence perimiter.
  
• Summer 2003, we rip out the dryrotted patio cover and tear up the 12x18 concrete slab. We go more than double over the weight limit on the dumpster (almost 20 tons instead of 10).
  
• End of summer 2003 status: Dead grass, 3 big, ugly diseased Cypress trees that drop lots of crap, nothing else alive really. No patio, just a sort of flat disrt area in front of the backdoor, flower bed is just dirt now that miles digs in.
  
• Spend the winter thinking, man, that clay that was under the concrete sure turns to some nasty mud when the water hits it.
  
• Spring/Summer 2004, decide enough is enough. Hire people to take down trees. They stack them on the side yard.
  
• 1 month later, rent stump grinder, grind down the back stumps.
  
• Rent dumpster, put trees in dumpster (along with ghetto chicken wire). Rock bottom; nothing alive in the backyard, rotten falling down fence, and a bunch of trash. Big pile of gravel and dirt in the side yard.
  
• Sep 2004; install new fence and clean up. Hurrah! positive movement. What we have now actually looks dilberately blank instead of accidentally overrun.
  

That's everything I think in the backyard. I'll see if I can find some good before/after pictures. Hopefully the after pictures will start to look a lot better soon.