Posts here have been and will be spotty for a couple weeks ...

I apologize for that, but here's why:

Some years back, a neighbor on the next block in back of us dropped the sides of a HUGE above-ground swimming pool and released thousands of gallons of water. It flowed down a little hill and then across a number of backyards, including mine, deeply trenching the lawns as it went.  Over the years, the trench got deeper and channeled runoff from any heavy rains along the same path.  This made a big mess for the guy who lives next door an d a disaster for me.

Finally, all of the pertinent local and county civil, civic and engineering authorities got together and as of this week converged on all of the yards involved, including mine, with multiple Bobcats, tons of cover gravel, concrete drainpipes and a storm drain head end that will stand in my backyard and, hopefully, resolve the issue for all involved.

Old yard fences are down and in the dump, trenching and burial of the pipes and storm drain head end is ongoing and should be finished by the end of this week, and new fencing should be set by sometime in the next week.  Why do it in Winter?  The idea was that the cold weather would allow them to work with frozen ground, making digging and fill easier, but the changing temps so far haven't made this a wholly workable proposition.  It's a mess, but they're getting it done.

My deal with the City included, in part, the contractors building a new, temporary partition fence to allow yard access for Tasha away from their work, but I haven't been able to inspect it (my sad old legs are kinda skittish on snow and ice) so we've been walking Tasha in a halter until Son Jason can get here and walk the new fence to ensure its viability.

Included in the project is a complete regrading down to local level of the North side of my yard, where a lot of the runoff has deposited dirt and silt and imstallation of new and taller fencing.  Then they'll cover the ground with new sod, which won't be do-able until, likely, May. Hopefully they'll be able to provide some kind of ground cover that will survive the early Spring rain storms that are sure to follow.

The grading guys are working sunrise to sunset, so I'm up at 4AM to make sure Tasha gets her outside breaks three or so times before the machines start roaring.  Then I try to take a nap, and that's not always possible with the roaring of the Bobcats.  Then, of course, Tasha needs the same series of breaks in the evening, up until about 11PM.

Makes for a long day, and that's why I'm a wee bit unavailable for the next little bit.  Thanks for understanding.  The good news is that the City is paying for the whole thing; a couple years back, I costed out the regrading project on my own and it was in the mid/high-five figures.

Repeat after me:  municipal income from a casino + honorable city management = GOOD!

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