It’s always great when things seem to happen right on time. If you’re the philosophical type you may say that everything happens in time, but it would have been inconvenient if last week’s rain had started a day earlier—before we completed the retaining wall around the cottage at Life Song Commons. Again, this project had little to do with food but a lot to do with the sustainability of the cottage as a living space. In its breadth permaculture recognizes these things as connected.
When we resumed construction we were right where I left off on my last blog post. We still had to tunnel beneath the concrete that was once a driveway and extend the trench along the west side of the cottage before we could lay any pipe or gravel. I don’t remember if it was in the original plan for the trench to wrap around the west side but the benefit is that it diverts all of the water to the row of blueberries. Although the gutter itself still needs to be put up on the shed to the east of the cottage, we added a section of pipe to connect it to the cottage’s drainage before refilling the trench.
When we resumed construction we were right where I left off on my last blog post. We still had to tunnel beneath the concrete that was once a driveway and extend the trench along the west side of the cottage before we could lay any pipe or gravel. I don’t remember if it was in the original plan for the trench to wrap around the west side but the benefit is that it diverts all of the water to the row of blueberries. Although the gutter itself still needs to be put up on the shed to the east of the cottage, we added a section of pipe to connect it to the cottage’s drainage before refilling the trench.
As the current residents of the cottage Alex and I were motivated to make it look nice when the excavation was done. Lucky as we were that the middle part of the drive way was not paved at digging time, it looked pretty rough after it was filled back in. Using only the bricks, stones, and slabs of rock we unearthed in digging the trench (and one log left behind from the tree removal a few weeks back), we pieced together a more inviting patio.
There was something satisfying about waking up late to the sound of rain the next morning, knowing the project that took us a month to finish was being put to use on its first day of existence. Around here people are understandably disillusioned with the rain but I, like the blueberries, still find it refreshing.
There was something satisfying about waking up late to the sound of rain the next morning, knowing the project that took us a month to finish was being put to use on its first day of existence. Around here people are understandably disillusioned with the rain but I, like the blueberries, still find it refreshing.
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