Fixing The Hill Above the Wall

By Jackie Deal

Weird noises.  Car? Motorcycle? What time is it? 7a.m.!  Stagger to window.  Open shades.

And there before me—two humongous, orange pieces of scooper/scraper machinery be-bopping around.

Lunch time and an interview request with Randy Bice, Manager, and Machinery Operator:

“Five minutes?”

“Nope, gotta get back to work.”

“Aw, com’on. Five minutes?”

”Oh, Okay.”

The big boys happily playing with big boys’ toys are Randy Bice, George Boykin and James Lowe. They’re operating Timber Valley’s front end tractors and a rented excavator. Shelly Gingery drives up with load after load of dirt that’s being dumped and leveled out behind the new wall fronting Hillside. Randy estimates 40 yards of dirt have been transferred from the drainage ditches in the storage area to the wall.

Randy says, “A host of people have worked on this wall since day one. After we smooth it, the Landscape Committee will cover it with plastic for the winter and then next spring they have a plan for fixing it up.”

Afternoon found our “cowboys” relegated to hand labor as they smoothed out the clods of dirt and swept more dirt from the road. A day’s hard labor and what do they get for it? Our gratitude and our thanks. And, oh, yes, a little more money left in our wallets come Annual Maintenance Dues time. Thanks to all who have contributed their time and effort. We do appreciate you.

_____________________

And now, a few words from the Landscape Committee…

After a very busy summer full of projects for PCM, it’s time to return to the Wall Project. Randy, Shelly, George Boykin, James Lowe and others have been busy grading ground above the wall in preparation for landscaping in Spring. Penelope Hepworth has helped Dar Hoch develop a landscape plan that will soften the wall’s stark straight appearance. Plantings will snake along the mid and upper portion with spring blooming yellow forsythia, contrasting with crimson barberry, variegated green/yellow/white Euonymus and blue accents of caryopteris (bluebeard). Over the wall’s edge, cascades of color from creeping phlox and thyme will continue to soften the wall’s sharp edge.

A big THANK YOU to those who have worked to prepare and lay the groundwork for next spring’s planting.

Dar Hoch – Landscape Co-chair