Digging in the dirt

One more home project checked off. I spent Sunday digging a trench to route the downspout away from our house. Two of the downspouts on our house just dump out near the foundation. When we had our home inspection done a few years ago, the inspector said there wasn't any real damage to the foundation (yet), but of course recommended we do something about it.

No more excuses - I finally took shovel in hand, dug the trench, and installed the perforated pipe and surface emitter. I am hoping that the drainage will also help keep that strip of grass alive. It always dies off in the summer.

While I was out digging in the yard, my neighbor came over to chat and supervise. He needs to do the same thing with his downspouts, but watching me dig was enough to put his off for a while longer.

He mentioned that one of our other neighbors is harassing the county to get some drainage on our street. Our cul-de-sac doesn't have any grates to deal with rain run-off. The road slopes slightly to the closed end of the road, so any yard with a low spot develops a lake.

As if to say "good job, just in time", the sky opened up this afternoon and poured down on our little corner of the world. The downspout works fine, but as you can see, the street really needs the grates to capture the runoff.