When we started using the wood stove in the house, we created a little wood shelter beside the shop for the wood we would need for the winter months. We were very naive about how much wood we would go through and that little shelter barely sufficed for the wood we would need. So, over the years, the wood pile has been partially in the wood shelter and then stacks and stacks around it covered by tarps. The spot that we had chosen for our wood pile, quickly became not such a great spot for many reasons.

The shop is on a pad that was backfilled with material to create a landing for the shop to be built on. Unfortunately, the previous owners did little to help retain some of that material, so with our dogs constantly exploring that area, we have noticed that material is sliding down into our garden area. It’s not a major problem, the landing is solid and it is very little material that is coming down, but regardless we need to find a solution.

Kurt and I started brainstorming ideas on how we could help stop some of the material from coming down into our garden beds. This is becoming especially important now that we are building our terraced garden beds on that side and intend to have plants growing this summer. We came up with all sorts of ideas from a fence behind the cedars to keep the dogs out of that area, adding large rocks to the slope to help keep the dogs off, building a few retaining walls, etc. We also paid attention to how the dogs were moving around in that area and we noticed that because of the wood pile, they couldn’t stay on the levelled top area of the landing that goes around the shop, but instead had to go onto the slope to get around the wood.

So, our first step is to find a new home for that wood pile and chopping block. Kurt has just recently cleaned out the “run” area that used to go along the side of our yard and up the side of our house. With all of his energy from the stunning weather we are having, he decided that while he was cleaning up the yard and that area, that he might as well make a move.

He unloaded all the remaining wood from the little wood shelter and loaded the wood shelter onto our cart. I swear that this cart that is in so many of our pictures is the best hundred dollars we have ever spent. Without it, we would not have been able to accomplish majority of what we have done in our yard. It is now 6 years old and a little on the rough side but it has hauled every rock for our yard, every bit of soil in our planters and all the yard materials we take to a yard waste centre. But I digress….Kurt decided to utilize the empty space between the house and the fence to temporarily, or perhaps permanently, move our wood pile to. So he levelled out the little wood shelter and re-stacked all of our remaining fire wood in its new location. If this ends up being our permanent location, we will level a spot for a larger, permanent wood shelter.

Once done with that, he also moved the chopping block up to the same area until we can decide what our permanent solution is. From there, he cleaned up any pieces of wood or bark from our winter chopping activities. He also moved the two flower barrels out of the way so that the area was completely clear.

There is a little brick area that our little wood storage unit used to sit and over the years it has also sloped slightly. Kurt would like to take that all out, level it and then put the brick area back in so that we can put a little garden bench there with a few flower pots, offering another area for us to sit and enjoy the yard. He would also like to put some landscaping fabric down in that little garden bed area and add rocks so that it looks similar to the garden bed beside it and has some better weed control. We had been holding off doing that since we need to finish the retaining wall we will be putting in this spring. It will wrap all the way around the cedars, providing a more level area for their bases and hopefully result in less water run-off during watering.

It’s so nice to get back into the yard again and be able to check off some projects that need doing before the ground thaws and we are able to get to the major task of building the last of our walls. This will be the last year that we will be hauling rocks up and down to fill wire cages.