TERRAFORMING

Uninspired slope along the length of the driveway

The term TERRAFORMING was coined by Jack Williamson in a science-fiction story (Collision Orbit) published during 1942 in Astounding Science Fiction,  (Even as I write those words, I fondly remember over 700 issues of 1930-40-50's Sci-Fi Zines I sold just a few weeks before we moved to Puna on the Big Island of Hawaii in 2012.)

Part of the challenge of moving to a totally new undeveloped land (or planet) is the chance to have a very big pallet of new shapes to work with -- a delight for artists who think in 3D.  After the earth-work we had done in August for my birthday (blog 8/19/15) we have begun to develop the front 1/2 of our property, which includes planting over 30 new trees, palms and flowering shrubs.  (More on that to come.)

Ah HA!!  Raw Materials to play with!

SO... there is this uninspiring slope along the south side of our long driveway that we have been simply mowing and edging to control the weed mass growing over the lava.  For nearly three years I have been eyeing that slope -- feeling sure there must be a more creative way to address it.  A couple days ago, I hoisted my pick ax and decided to just play with the raw materials --- and VOILA!! 

When the original work was done to create the driveway, the cat must have just shoved piles of broken lava over to the side -- because i found lots and lots of wonderful raw materials once I began to dig.  I sorted out all the various sizes of lava and began to re-shape the mound into a tiered bed.

Once I had done one 2-yard section I was inspired, and for the last three days, it has been a stimulating project.   OK, yes, it will take a while since the length of the section is about 66 feet long...but it will be such a nice feature when we come up the driveway to our hale.