Massive undertaking - 3 acre garter habitat

[untoucheclipse]

thats awesome, but i would have to travel to far to come see it when its done lol

[infernalis]

Went back there today, I was amazed to see this.... Jim had already pulled all the stumps and padded the meadowland part down flat.

I have a whole lot of raking and seeding to do...

[ConcinusMan]

Forgive me if I'm having a hard time picturing a garter habitat in that pic. Perhaps in time, I'll be able to picture it. Right now it looks like a some dudes went into the woods, cleared some trees and stumps, made a big mess, then it snowed. Does that about sum it up?

[infernalis]

You don't have much imagination now do you.

Landscaping is not quite an overnight process.

A lot of thought has to go into each move or problems arise later that a little common sense can avoid.

The entire project is located between a stream that flash floods from time to time and at the base of a rather steep hill the funnels rainwater down it's slopes.

So these things need to be taken into consideration now and not later when the pond overflows in July and I have standing water in places I don't want it, etc..

In addition to what I have shown you there is now drainage channels cut at a shallow angle on the side of the hill.

If your implying that I sold the timbers, yes I did. Once I saw the guy had nice heavy equipment and he knows how to run it, I traded a load of logs for the habitat project.

I'm trying to convince him into a second pond up on top of the hill. There is a spring up there that is always wet, He's up there right now so it's only a few more hours of bulldozing to add another.

Not only am I getting a sweet habitat, but by this July I will be sitting back there on my observation deck cooking burgers and sipping cold ones.

I think that considering its December, there is a bit of progress there.

Ideally we want to get the pond cut (takes a day) before the real winter gets here.

I want water in it by first thaw. The local amphibians will use it right away, they show up in mass numbers every spring without fail and breed like crazy. So it stands to reason that they will be immediately drawn to the pond....

I took these within 200 feet of where we did this work. (my truck is parked there in the bottom photo)









I roped this off last summer to keep vehicles out of it.

[ConcinusMan]

Relax Wayne. When are you all going to figure out when I'm just trying to rouse you sometimes?

worked a little too well

[infernalis]

no prob, I should be asleep by now.

Man I am thinking that I have a lot of hand raking to do, I am looking for lawn quality here, so raking and rolling it down is going to be a real bear.

[ConcinusMan]

Oh crap. Don't even remind me of the raking. We had a bad wind storm lasted a couple of days. I don't even have deciduous trees in my yard and yet there's a foot of soaking wet leaves, front and back. Grrr....

[guidofatherof5]

Looking good Wayne.
Keep us posted on your progress.
You'll have to name the area at some point. Here's a few ideas:

"Habitate for Thamnophis"
"Wayne's Thamnophis Gardens"
and of course "Wayne's World"

[ConcinusMan]

Wayne's garter snake world.

[HazAnga]

I like the first one lol, and awesome work Wayne, I'd love to help... but alas I'm no where near you