::spring outdoor: dry creek::

With our first real spring in our new farm we are learning all its little quirks.  We moved in here in August and just loving this getting to know you year.  One ting we learned when the spring rains started is that the downspout on the side of our house drained a huge amount of water and that the lay of the yard made it all pool right around the house.  We decided to make a dry creek bed to drain the water away from the house.  Our fields and neighboring fields are filled with wonderful rocks and boulders that we got permission from the surrounding farmer to use.  He was actually thrilled that I was going to get them out of his field.  

Project started on a warmish March day.  Which in Indiana means, not snowing.  

We used the tractor and lots of shovel work to dig out a trench that would allow the water to drain away from the house and go down our driveway.  

Then we lined it with pond liner.

Big boulders went in first and then filled between them with medium rock.  

After that the rest of the pond liner was covered with a layer of small river rocks.  I did have to buy 5 bags of these since rocks this small are not naturally available.  

A few weeks latter I bought some sweet little inexpensive annual flowers to help add some color to my world.