The Archaeologist

Today I started a big project to reclaim the backyard from the ivy, weeds and what not. It turned out to be more of an archaeological expedition than anything else, but unlike “Indiana Jones,” I went with the T-shirt and shorts sans leather jacket and fedora.

Because our house had been empty for some time before we moved in, much of the back yard was overgrown with ivy, including many of the trees. The photo below taken last September before we had the tree in the photo removed gives a good view of the overgrowth.


It wasn’t until recently when I started to take a look at other homes around our neighborhood that I realized how bad the ivy growth had become. Most yards had little or no ivy. Yards that did, especially ones that back up to the creek like ours, only had a little ivy growth near the creek, nothing more.

Other things to deal with... There were these bricks all over the yard that a previous owner had set up to line dirt/mulch walkways. After the “Great Septic Tank Discovery” and the tree removal last year, these bricks were scattered all over the place. Also, there’s a cement walkway in the backyard that leads from a point somewhere below our patio down almost to the creek. There’s also a cement walkway that branches off this which leads to a cement slab - where we’ll be placing our shed in a few weeks.

The next photo (below) was taken three days ago, which shows the ivy on either side of the walkway, but I had removed many of the bricks a couple weekends ago.


Compare to this photo (below) taken today after I finished.


One thing we could never figure out was how did the previous owners get down to the walkway from the patio above. I was thinking maybe they had wooden steps that had since rotted and been removed. I found an old painted wooden dowel last year in that area.

I figured once I raked through the ivy with a metal rake, to make sure there were no bricks or rocks, I could run over it with the lawnmower.

Like “Indiana Jones,” I’m not a big fan of snakes, but who is. In Virginia, we had some garter snakes and black snakes, which are all well and good. But, we were told to be on the lookout for copperheads, especially hiding in the ivy. This report was confirmed by the plumbers who encountered some small copperheads on their septic tank dig. They told us the copperheads quickly became non-snakes courtesy of their shovel. Since then, I usually have a shovel with me when I’m working in the yard even when I don’t need it. Today I had it partly for a chance snake encounter, but mostly to dig out little trees/shrubs that had taken root in the ivy. I will tell you that I only encountered one small snake, little actually. I don’t know what kind of snake only that it was brown and then it was dead. I also encountered a couple really big millipedes or centipedes, yep dead too.

Anyway, back to the “dig.” I started raking from the walkway up toward the patio where the ivy is growing all over the hillside. I soon discovered a cement ramp buried under the ivy leading down from the patio. Not sure if this was meant to be a walkway or for drainage because it’s pretty steep. Parts of the ramp were lined with brick and some areas had a ridge on the side.


I found plenty of other stuff in the ivy, besides bricks and rocks; I also found a paint can, a kid’s sneaker and a bird feeder.



At least I got one side of the walkway done. I want to clear off the other side of the walkway down to the cement slab. I doubt I’ll clear it all the way to the creek, but I want to clear it up to the trees and then get some grass growing. Hopefully I can get some more done tomorrow, but it’s supposed to rain so maybe not.

Raking through the ivy and pulling it out, along with some roots, wore me out. It's Modelo time baby!

Almost forgot, Lago's recipe post last night was our 100th post on Lago's Lounge!

Salut'