It's a warm sunny Blue Ridge Saturday and am chipping away on the landscaping here. The 2 cabins sit on 2.97 acres. there were actually 3 but all that is left of the 3rd is its chimney and foundation stones which i hope to harvest and recycle as steps. Am cutting up hosta and such and setting them in a bench cut just made above the smaller cabin. Rather than leave positive drainage around the house, Moss Log Homes (you'll hear more on them) simply dug holes to uncover crawlspace vents. About ten months after the construction was 'finished' i noticed tremendous wicking of moisture on the walls and saw that the 80 year old thin concrete slab that is my porch had suddenly begun to crack. Emergency excavation revealed wrapped pipe simply set into the clay and it didn't empty anywhere. The new contractor took care of it and did it right. Water is the real enemy here. its a complex grade and the structures sit down hill. Am just planting to hold the cuts together right now. And spraying kudzu. The place was covered with this hideous and scary fast growing vine and i chip away at it. Fortunately Roundup mixed at 3 times label strength and a shot of BLUE Dawn dish soap knocks it back a bit. It don't die easy tho. You can see some damage to the stuff in lower pic. Its really fibrous stems are hard to cut- another escaped exotic that ravages our land. Apparently the huge starchy roots are the source of true tempura on Nippon so maybe the only way to be free of this pest is to eat it...might not be so bad--kudzu one redeming feature to my mind is its late season bloom with a scent indistinguishable from grape bubble gum.
No comments:
Post a Comment