Sunday when we finished working on the terrace we had compacted several layers of gravel between the pasture fence and the poles knowing we wanted to add gravel to near the top of the poles. When Monday rolled around we were exhausted and our hands were aching so we thought we would not come back to the terrace until Thursday. as there was no rain predicted until the end of the week. We went to see live music in Nashville Monday night and massages in Nashville on Tuesday. Wednesday was one year from our first communication and we planned a quiet day..
We had planned to take Wednesday off to celebrate and reflect on our relationship’s first year. Around 11 AM Craig checked the weather and saw that a thunderstorm with 2″ of rain was predicted that evening. We did not think the terrace was ready for much rain so we went out and compacted at least 7 more layers of gravel. We finished about a half hour before the rain was predicted. While it is unclear how high the gravel needs to be, we decided it was good enough for the night. Once the rain started we went out to watch the terrace. It was a little hard to know compare to previous rains because the ground on this side of terrace is so distorted from all of the work, but there did not appear to be any flow of water over the terrace. The rain soaked the soil not protected by the trees and eventually pooled enough to start running down hill but it was much less than what I had observed previously. Craig thought he saw some water tracking under the terrace and he ended the evening thinking all of the work may not have helped that much. I couldn’t quite “see” what he was concerned about and was optimistic.
This morning, after confirming we had gotten over 2 inches of rain between 6 PM and midnight with 2 episodes of really hard rain, I cautiously looked at the driveway. To my delight, it was in MUCH better shape than it had been after the 4 previous storms. It seems that all of the work we put into the terrace made a significant difference.
I was not expecting it to make so much of a difference and Craig who is naturally more of a pessimist than I am, is not sure one storm is enough of a test. Time will tell.
I am excited to continue with our terracing work so we can move on to adding top soil and planting grass and flowers to protect it.
Fingers crossed.
Tamara Unleashed 