March 12 – 23, 2024: Between rainstorms and the ebb and flow of other work, our crew broke ground and tidied up the site for foundation work in just 10 days time.

a patch of woods is now a building site

The first step was to mow down the smaller trees and bushes, ably done by Tyler from Slaney Landscaping & Excavating. Then the big equipment was called in. And a big guy with a very big chainsaw to scare out the last of the birds and bees and furry creatures.

The tree tops and smaller logs were chipped. Medium size logs were stashed to the side for campfire wood. The really big logs were trucked away to a guy to split for home fuel. And the stumps and ungainly chunks were taken to the Village dump, where they will be chipped and sold for mulch.

Shawn Slaney stripped the topsoil and set it aside. Then he began trenching for footings. But not so fast: he ran into an unfortunate, thick layer of “muck” —-black sticky spongey clay running in veins that had to be scraped out. The trench grew into a hole. Finally, firm gravelley soil was struck a foot or two lower than we’d hoped and was deemed acceptable.

Clean fill was brought in by the truckload and compacted firm, creating a generous pad for the concrete contractor to place the footings.

Saturday broke clear and crisp for our first Weekend Warrior Work Day. My friends Glenn, Laura, JC, and I staked straw bales along the south edge of the lot to catch any runoff from the soil piles. We cut and stacked firewood. We broadcast cereal rye (a quick growing grass) over the soil piles that, when it sprouts, should hold and feed the soil over the next 6 to 9 months. We picked up random debris and made a little campfire for a mid-afternoon coffee.

I feel pretty good about the eco-friendly choices we’ve made so far. We destroyed a wildlife habitat but promise to plant yard trees and pollinator gardens. The machines burned up a bunch of petroleum, but we’ll make good use of the bio-fuels. The topsoil is protected, and the erosion control barrier is biodegradable (no plastic netting or plastic fencing) and will be used later for mulch. And just as important: we worked together and had a good time!