At our last report, in mid September, the landscaping crew was finishing burying three 2,500 gallon cisterns in the back yard, and we were anticipating capturing the rain that was forecast later in the week. Rain it did. When the back yard was dry enough to visit, we lifted the lid on the cisterns and found them full, 7,500 gallons of water. I’m glad we opted for the third tank. It was a question when we were in the design phase.
It’s interesting to see how the movement of water through the back yard has changed. Mostly, the water just disappears underground, but at the far end of the big flat spot created by the buried cisterns, the yard now slopes even more steeply than before. Not surprisingly, we had a little bit of erosion on that slope. Ultimately we’ll have some additional terracing and other structures - as well as vegetation - that should help stabilize the yard. Further, since the big rain event, they’ve added even more of the roof cannales into the capture system. Yet, the steep slope looks…abrupt and in the original drafts there was no plan for that other than native grass. We’re talking with Reese and Shasta about ways to soften the slope.
In the meantime, Jose and the crew have started the stonework. It begins with Shasta, our landscape designer, directing the placement of key boulders. With these in place, they sketch out the plan for the stairs and patio, in paint on the ground. Following, the painstaking work of fitting and cutting stones fills in the design.
At the end of last week, they had basically finished the west-side patio (see the initial photo in this post) and started the path that connects it to the back-yard patio. In an earlier post we provided a bigger picture of the plan that might provide some helpful orientation. We have a long ways to go yet.
Over the weekend we had some intense storms including the first tornado warning in Santa Fe in 70 years. If the cisterns weren’t already full, they certainly would be now. Today, by contrast, we have a beautiful blue sky and the only visible remnant of the storm from here is the snow on top of the mountains.
Thanks for reading.