2010 Views
The Lot 13 mound had been created by the excavation of the driveway for Lot 13 and the widening of the common drive across the dam and south turn-around in 2009. As soon as it was shaped, I transplanted burning bushes and Taxus from the original mound on Lot 12 near West River Road. Then I covered the fresh soil with landscaping fabric and applied about 4 inches thick of Cyprus bark. Also I added small volunteer red cedars and white pines as well as various small hardwood saplings that had especially colorful Fall leaves.
This May 13, 2010 panorama was taken from the common drive at the branch of the Lot 13 driveway.
From a different direction, this May 13, 2010 picture is of the home site viewed to the east northeast, of the mound beyond the line of maple trees.
On October 7, 2010 I took a closer view of the mound from the east northeast. The home site is beyond the mound.
On October 8, 2010, I took another picture of the mound from the east. The transplanted shrubs and saplings, though munched on by the deer are growing.
I took another panorama of the mound on October 28, 2010 from the Lot 13 home site, to the northeast and east. Note the Kawasaki Mule in the northeast. It will give you a perspective of the size of the mound. The burning bushes are a bold scarlet color.
This panorama was taken November 9, 2010, to the northeast, east and southeast; again taken from the Lot 13 home site.
2011 Views
May 2, 2011, I took this picture of the remnant of a tulip tree that had been struck by lightning several years earlier and had been slowly dying. To save a future homeowner the problem of felling a tall, dead tree, I hired Kodiak to fell it. Instead of landing in the home site, it fell on top of the mound, narrowly missing a small spruce tree I had planted there.
This is a more distant view of the mound, taken from the southeast on May 2, 2011 while Kodiak was working to remove the downed tree.
This once-beautiful tulip tree was struck by lightning. Then the carpenter ants invaded the struggling tree and destroyed it. Kodiak came out on May 2, 2011 with their mini backhoe, chainsaws and good work habits to remove a mature maple that had snapped off during a windstorm, weakened by carpenter ants that had invaded it and hollowed the inside. While they were on site, I asked them to also fell this tree safely. They haul the larger trunks away in their dump truck and chip the smaller branches so I don't have to burn them. That maple project is the subject of another blog.
First, Tom Hricovec notched the trunk to encourage the tree to fall into the area of the Lot 13 home site.
This tree had unseen weight distribution in its structure and fell, instead, in the opposite direction, onto the mound.
Tom on the way to cut the trunk to lengths that will fit into the dump truck. His helper, Joe waited for instruction.
After Joe fastened the chain in the center of mass of the trunk, Tom lifted it and swung it to the waiting dump truck.
Joe walked to bring the truck which had been parked safely out of the way that the tree should have fallen, to bring it to Tom to load.
Tom lifted the trunk into the bed of the dump truck.
2013 Views
2012 had been a quiet year regarding pictures of the Lot 13 mound. I had transplanted more red cedars, saplings and dogwood. I also transplanted Ajuga and Creeping Jenny and some sedum that would be ground cover for the mound. The striking blue spikes of the ajuga in the spring, the butter yellow of the Creeping Jenny and the pink of the sedum would provide variety throughout the year.
2013 was also relatively quiet regarding pictures of the Lot 13 mound. We were busy upgrading the lower lake alongside West River Road in 2012 and also in 2013. However, November 1st, we had a severe storm with lots of wind. Looking out of my window on Lot 10, I noticed that a tree seemed to have blown down on the Lot 13 mound. Driving over there, I found, yes, another mature maple had snapped off and landed onto the mound. Armed with my trusty chainsaw, I cut off the smaller limbs that I could load onto the Mule and made several trips to the burn pile behind the Lot 10 garage. I also stacked some of the longer limbs that I had loaded on top of the protective cage of the Mule into a pile for Kodiak to come out during a break in their winter construction schedule and chip the longer limbs as I didn't have time to burn them.
This is the sight that greeted me on November 1, 2013. Another beautiful mature maple snapped off by the wind, weakened by the carpenter ants.
Note the hollowed out core of the trunk. Even though it was hollow, it was still a job for the Kodiak mini backhoe.
Another Mule load heading for the burn pile.
I took this picture November 20, 2013 to forward to Kodiak relative to the removal of this trunk and other trees that had blown down in the November 1st windstorm. This work could be done when the ground was frozen during winter.
2014 Views
Winter, 2013 didn't provide much frozen ground when Kodiak had a free work schedule, so it wasn't until March, 2014 that Kodiak sent out Mark Hricovec and a helper, Steve, to remove not only the maple trunk from the Lot 13 mound, but also several other trees from Lot 6 and Lot 12 that had blown down in that November windstorm.
When Kodiak chipped the limbs behind the garage, they drove the chips to Lot 13 and dumped them for me to spread onto the Lot 13 mound to supplement the Cyprus bark already on the mound.
This view is of the west side of the Lot 13 mound, taken May 3, 2014 after I had spread the chips.
This is the north end view of the Lot 13 mound, also taken on May 3, 2014.
This May 3, 2014 picture is of the east side of the mound. Note the growth of the red cedars and Taxus.
August 8, 2014 I took this picture from the Lot 13 home site to the northeast. The mound is in the background.
2015 Views
This is a May 1, 2015 view of the Lot 13 mound from the Southeast. Note the Ajuga and Creeping Jenny spreading nicely as a ground cover. Also note the growth of the red cedars and Scotch pine. This is in spite of deer damage over the past three winters.
Also in May 1, 2015 I took this view of the mound from the south. The Creeping Jenny is flourishing. I had also transplanted more very small red cedar saplings that were volunteers from an area near the bridge.
