Mountain Clilmbing or Landscaping?

Two very difficult hills have been our  landscaping challenge for the past couple of weeks.  One job is on Lake James, Ryan and Scott have been the primary installers each rock is handled five times by hand before is carefully nested in the glacial retaining wall.

 This one is a logistics nightmare back up the narrow steep driveway with a full load of rocks, wiggle next to the six foot tall concrete retaining wall and dump to a wooden backstop which prevents the rocks from rolling down the hill.  Pick up rocks hand drop to the next level.  Pick up rocks hand drop to the next level put in wheel barrow push ten feet.  Drop rocks pick up rocks hand drop to the next level.  Each drop point has a wooden backstop the lake is nearly two stories below.

It is back breaking work standing on a hill all day is hard enough but add to that toting 30-50 pound

rocks and shoveling uphill, hats off to you men it is another beautiful job.



The lot actually has treated timber terraces with a wooden staircase and brick insert.  Glacial rock is what the home owner wants to replace all the timbers with eventually, it would be a huge undertaking.  I know Ryan and Scott would not be anxious to work here again.









The other hill we are working is rather unique, very steep in a short distance 135" drop in 8' we have to have a extension ladder laying on the hill to wall up, in the beginning the men had a rope to repel up and down.

First order of business was to strip the hill of all plant material, Travis ended up covered in poison  ivy he had a very nasty rash had to to Urgent Care and get steroids.

It was necessary to jackhammer the seawall where we were fitting in the snap cut steps, that was a unpleasant surprise we were hoping just to saw and chisel but the concrete steps were poured right over the full seawall.  We removed a full staircase and found a second buried in the dirt.

Getting materials down this hill requires three men and a machine.  The bobcat operator lowers down the limestone and the snapcut stair tread, the bluestone weighs between 400-600 pounds.




Safety is paramount when handling these heavy steps the men take this busy very seriously one small mistake and it is goodbye finger and look out toes.

We had to stop work on this job because we need exact height for our last three stairs it has been difficult finding them but Matt at Felger's thinks he will have them Monday.

The renovation of this lakeside landscaping might be next on my list, I will give the customer a bid this week. We installed the block retaining walls several years ago for the previous homeowner and installed the snap cut stone staircase for the current owner last year.  Now they are ready to update the plant material.

Dale and Judy on Lake James have asked us to take a look at the space between the steps and the tree and suggest some landscaping ideas that would eliminate this difficult mowing.  I have a idea for a dry creek bed while Bruce is favoring ground cover, it will be interesting to see which was they go.

Catching lots of sparkly water and early morning fishing on the lakes these days, hear they are pulling some big bass out this fall.