To the left of the Lair, as you face it, is the slope of the ridge. Water has to go somewhere and it prefers downhill, demonstrating the major disadvantage of building your cabin in a hollow. There are also advantages.
The little gully that empties directly into my front yard is really the least of my troubles, damage-wise. It causes deep mud, though, and since that is the highest-traffic area I’d like the water to go elsewhere. So I dig from the V of the gully around the base of the little hillock that protrudes from it, convincing the water to turn right and out across the driveway without bothering my yard.
I got into this a few days ago and then set it aside to concentrate on painting. But we’ve had two successive rainy mornings and it’s only a brief, indeterminate amount of time before the gullies run. Really time to get my trenches in shape. So I took it up again for an hour yesterday evening, hit some rocks, and determined to finish this morning. If only LB will get his fat butt out of the way…
And two hours of prying rocks later, I’ve a lovely little watercourse that will last until it silts up. I use my 10-gallon laundry barrels to gush water through the trench and see where it needs tweaking. When the gully runs the trench needs to channel a lot of water for a brief time and you want it to keep moving freely. I go through this every year and it works just fine. By the end of Monsoon this trench will be all full of rocks and silt again, and I won’t have to trip over it all year – but I will need to dig it out again next summer.
Meanwhile on the other part of the eastern slope, my diverting wall needs shoring up…
Two years ago when the rain was so hard I started getting a new erosion ditch forming where I’d dug for the water line. All that mud ended up in my yard, too. Since I couldn’t stop it from happening, I hauled a whole bunch of rock to divert the water in a less damaging direction and it worked pretty well. Now while I still have time I’m strengthening that wall and deepening the trench that has formed along it.
Since Monsoon started early this year it’s safest to assume it’s going to be a wet one. If it works out the other way, it’s all good.
