Rock River Landscape Removal

I've told you about Albert before, he's the old farmer we bought our land from. 

You can read the story {here} with the basics.  It's a pretty nice post about how we bought this land and how Albert's barn was burned down.

It's also about how I use Albert in my decorating, like this bench.....

When we started building our house there was a huge pile of rocks that Albert had picked from his fields over his 90 years of farming the same property where he was born.

We used that pile for everything; from stacked stone fireplaces, to patio edge landscape......

To the rock river on the side of the house.

Right where Albert had piled it, we dug out a gully and laid down landscape cloth to make a rock river that flowed with the natural slope of the land and sort of separated the more tame part of our yard from the wild and free.

With six kids in the yard, I gotta tell you, most of the time everything in life was wild and free!

The rock river acted as a wash so to speak, so when it rained the water would flow down the rocks making noise like a soothing babbling brook.
 
The below photo is not a babbling brook.

Last summer we had a torrential downpour and the water came off the field beyond, flowed over instead of under the driveway, and went out of the rock river bank. 

Water flowed so fast for so long, it displaced a good portion of the big rocks and sent them to the bottom of the usually dry rock river bed.

This rock flowing action also ripped and shredded the landscape cloth that was underneath. 

So much so that it needed to be replaced and all the rocks that flowed to the bottom of the little hill needed to be picked and put back on the top and middle of the hill.

Doing all that would make a lot of work, and double of it - remove them all to replace the landscape fabric, then put them all back into place.

So after 20 years of having a babbling brook next to our bedroom when it rains, Brawn made the decision to remove the majority of the rocks and plant grass.

First it was dug out, then he had to come back and put fresh black dirt on to fill it back in.

He enlisted the use of a loader that belongs to one of his younger brothers, the help of one of our four sons and his friend who works on a dairy farm, and they started the work.

He also cut down a large cedar tree that had seen better days, which opened up a straight view into part of the master bathroom for folks driving in the driveway.

I'll have to keep that fact in mind because if I can see them from my bathroom, they can see me.

Overgrown sumac bushes were mowed down.

Sumac is pretty in the fall, but the rest of the year it's basically a tall weed that blocks the view.  Besides there is tons more of it along the driveway to enjoy in the fall.

Rocks were left about midway so when water flows under the driveway through the culvert it won't wash everything away.

The loader didn't tear up the yard too bad either, which was nice, although the rock moving was hard on some hostas that line the area, but they'll bounce back.

Grass seed was sown, and within a week tiny blades of green are showing in the dirt.

The rock pile was leveled off at the bottom of the hill, and if we ever need to use them they are easily picked.

From time to time I might miss the sound of the water from the long path it would take down the hill during a decent rain, but I'll still be able to enjoy part of that sound from the top where the rocks remain.

And now I can take a short cut when it's time to mow the grass on the wild and free side of the yard, maybe even taming it a bit.

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