When we first talked to Austin Marcum from ProScape about our drainage issues, he said it would probably take his crew a week to ten days to get the job done. It actually took them four days from when they started ripping out the top layer of dirt and grass in our backyard on Monday morning to when they finished up Thursday afternoon. They were hardworking guys who obviously knew their business and didn’t waste any time.
After grading and leveling the backyard to create a natural drainage path, they dug a trench from the backyard along the side of the house to the ditch in front of our property. Then they dug another trench across the front yard to connect with the first one. These would be the basis for our French drains. They lined the trenches with heavy black fabric and then put in big drainage tubes to carry water away.
The next step was to cover the trenches with rock to facilitate drainage into them.
When we woke up Thursday morning, they had sod stacked and ready to go.
By the end of the day they had laid down the sod in part of the backyard and along the drainage trenches, and filled the rest of the backyard with a combination of hay and grass seed.
Austin tells me that we should see a real difference between the sloppy morass we had for so long, and we are really looking forward to that. It rained for a while early Friday morning, and when we woke up there were a few places in the back where there was some standing water, but within a couple of hours, it had drained away. That’s a big difference because it has been a soggy mess since we moved in.
The rain was supposed to last all day yesterday, but instead, it was gone by mid-morning. However, it was downright cold, and except for going out to the road to bring in our trash can and get the mail, I stayed at my computer all day. By the time I stopped about 7 PM I had another 3,700 words done in my latest Tinder Street book.
While I was doing that, Terry was hanging up some new window blinds, doing laundry, and everything else she does on a daily basis to make my life easy. Then for dinner, she made delicious hot deli-style Italian sandwiches. Yes, I know I’m spoiled. Stop being jealous, it’s not going to do you any good.
Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of Big Lake, my first novel and the first book in my Big Lake small town mystery series. This is the book that started me on my career as an author.
To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books and audiobooks to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed.
And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.
Thought For The Day – I used to care what people thought about me until one day when I tried to pay my bills with their opinion.
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!