Here on twoprops.net
, I tend to focus on my accomplishments as the indomitable Infrastructure Man. HA, though, is tirelessly working to make the visible parts of the compound more functional and aesthetically pleasing.
Case in point: the county road runs along the longest edge of the compound almost parallel to a deep gulch. The gulch is mostly wild. It is rain and mist forest and jungle, with ‘ōhi’a trees, coffee, koa, guava, citrus, towering (and fallen) eucalyptus, ferns, loquat, and tangled vines I cannot identify. We fenced it off from the pasture to keep from being overrun by feral pigs. From the road, you could only see a decrepit, rusty barbed-wire fence that decayed into nothing, and… jungle. I thought, first, that it was hopeless, and second that it had its own aesthetic befitting my secret lair. Left to my own devices, I would have probably let the jungle encroach on the road and our driveway, hiding (and then blocking) our main gate.
HA had other ideas. She and the Hand cleared a large portion of the strip of land between the street and the gulch, and planted it with bananas and citrus. We had to surround the infant trees with fence wire to keep them from being destroyed by pigs.
There will be a beautiful grove once it grows up, and for now it’s a much more pleasant approach to our drive and I’m sure is more appealing for the neighbors to not have to drive through untamed jungle to get home.
She planted a number of small decorative plants along the now-cleared verge of the road further from the house, which should grow to be quite colorful and lovely (as well as obscuring Infrastructure Man’s collection of PVC pipe and distracting from the god-awful tangle of telephone and internet cables above).
All-in-all, driving along the edge of the compound is now a much more pleasant experience.
—2p