Adding A Deck
Why add a deck? The short answer is it's less work, and less expensive, than adding dirt to add "height" to ground features. What does that mean? We started out with a very picturesque setting with a pond and waterfall... From the proper viewing angle. Sitting on the patio by the garage and viewing the waterfall framed by the howe truss bridge is absolutely inviting. In fact, so much so, we used that for our home page. From the backside? Not so much.
We started with "Mount Crumpet", a reason for the waterfall to even exist. But that requires dirt, and a LOT of it! We toyed with the idea of a terraced, or staircased, planter arrangement to "contain" the dirt. The planter(s) should eventually contain plants to hide the terraced approach and provide a pleasing scale representation of forest cover surrounding the waterfall. Enter the deck to cover a large area, and raise the surroundings to that level.
Shortly before we started the deck, we removed the pond. Ann wasn't happy with the pups constantly taking a dip in it. It's more precise to say we grew tired of constantly having to dry them off every time we came inside. We kept the waterfall for a short time after, but it kept getting knocked over and soon became as tiresome as the pups swimming in the pond. Much of the dirt that made up Mount Crumpet came from digging out the pond to begin with. You can probably guess most of that dirt went to backfill the giant hole where the pond used to be. Goodbye Mount Crumpet. Hello Lake Desolate...
Shortly after we started the deck, we had to say goodbye to our "Big Guy", Brigel. He was taken from us far too early by Cardio Myopathy. When he crossed the rainbow bridge, it really took the wind out of our sails. We were devasted. Thankfully there was a shining pot of gold at the end of that rainbow. Her name is Kai. She's part German Shepherd, part Husky. At least, that's what we're told. She really gives Rocket a run for his money, and that's for sure! Hopefully you'll enjoy the videos of the two of them chasing each other around the Barkyard. It's heartwarming... Just what the doctor ordered for a broken heart!
Because we enjoy watching the two of them chase around the barkyard, we decided to keep the deck self contained. That is to say we decided not to extend it all the way across to the planters along the fence, leaving them a wide path to chase each other and play. There is a certain utility to allowing a path for the yard cart as well! While my idea of a long tunnel through that stretch is now out the window, we no longer have to worry about how to access train wrecks inside the tunnel anymore. We'll have a number of shorter tunnels now, and the deck will become part of the terrain the railroad must pass through. We struggled with how to incorporate the deck at first, but eventually ended up with the K.I.S.S. principle working in our favor.
We finally arrived at a framing arrangement for the deck that's a good compromise.
