What’s in My Yard Today
Posted on October 4, 2011 Posted by John Scalzi 24 Comments
Not the usual thing.
The reason it’s there, incidentally, is that we need to repair some of the drainage tile that runs through our yard; it’s deteriorated over the years and that means that when we get a lot of rain, it tends to flow over our land rather than under it. This will hopefully fix that, or at least make it a less frequent occurrence. Just another thing you think about when you have a five acre lawn.
About your yard … I am reminded of the Clifford Simak story “The Big Front Yard.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Front_Yard
Athena’s driver’s ed vehicle?
Doesn’t count as a lawn ornament unless it’s up on blocks.
Drainage “tile”?
yellow…..
Yep – drainage tile, as in buried ceramic / terracotta pipes.
I remember growing up in that area of Ohio where it’s a pretty common thing. As a kid, finding the tile outlets is a mysterious thing – “where is all this water coming from?”
We are on an 8 acre parcel with the house set above a 5 acre lawn/pasture/hay field/driving range, depending on the season. No engineered drainage here: in the NW winter we have what the real estate folks call a ‘Seasonal Pond’..
I think the real reason for the big lawn is because of the highly modified SR-71 “Blackbird” hanger underneath it.
big…. yellow…. and the driver is a distant distant heir of Ghenghis Khan… now all I need is a picture of Scalzi lying on the ground in front of the earth mover and my day would be complete.
Huh! Will wonders never cease. Thank you, emeb, for enlightening this child of the forest and desert.
Scalzi: I like your answer to #7 on the “lawn Q&A” page. Smart man!
:-)
Water drainage or septic tank drainage? We had to replace the septic field on the last house. Had a hell of a garden until we realized why things were growing so well.
When I saw this picture, the first thing I thought was, “Hey. That’s right by where he had that tree taken out a while ago.”
My second thought was, “Wow. It’s kind of weird that I know that.”
Mow.. Mow.. Mow.. Mow..
Everytime I remember that you live on 5 acres, covered in grass, it blows my mind. I grew up on 10 acres in the mountains east of San Diego. Grass was something shipped in on pallets and carefully tended with advanced irrigation systems hooked up to clocks. And maybe only 300 square feet of it.
Ohio sounds nice sometimes.
That settles it. Now I’m not getting a 5 acre yard.
I hope they fix what’s broken for you.
I can think of at least one other good use for a 6 foot deep hole in the yard. I put a Coke Zero down there, Tormentor, how about you go down and find it…
I’m jealous of the 5 acre lawn. Nice.
Toys! Guy Toys! Nothing like pushing around dirt with big, yellow, noisy power equipment. Sigh…
Improper drainage leads to damage of the Lawn… So the the lawn strikes back, it is mind controlling Mr. John to maintain its environmental shaping…. Yes, that is right, modern suburban culture is actually a conspiracy of grass to transform as much of the world as possible for it’s comfort.
Or at least that is my theory….
I thought maybe Tony Robinson was there to look for a Roman villa, but not in Ohio.
I remember the over-land flood you had earlier in the year.
ooooooO! The upgrading possibilities… sock-covered slit-abs pipe, and underground river of infiltration canisters, buried gabian rock cages… buried groundwater collection cisterns for irrigation… Think Big!
Does your wife encourage environmental creativity? A settler in western Nebraska once made a house out of Hay bales. Hay, recyclable, replantable, oh yeah, the allergy thing…maybe our health limits are put there for a reason.
If I get five acres, we’re putting in the apple orchard & the catapult starter kit. Then start planting pumpkins….I could just imagine Wil Wheaton launching pumpkins and laughing.