Flashback...

I stumbled across some pictures this morning. I forgot I had these. A major portion of the reclamation story occured here and it's related to this:

Due to recent health issues for both hubby and I, though, we've had another three year stretch where the neglect is very evident. It didn't help that we pretty much covered the whole thing over in cuttings taken from along the back fence a few years ago. We had work done to the sewer line hookup to the main city drain in the alley. The elbow had disintegrated! We had to prep in case the fence needed to be moved. (It didn't, but what a mess!) That's what it's been like ever since.

It was a near thing to leave the fence in place. Thankfully, they were able to get the equipment in position as is, so we escaped a lot of extra work. The crew did a good job replacing the old, damaged clay tile pipe with a more durable version.

And all that brush we cleared around and interwoven into the fence...

No rose vines back then. Just grape vines, which was almost as much of a challenge as the subsequent rose vines. They grab anything and everything on the way down, plus they go on forever. Like a magician with an endless string of handkerchiefs.

Well, it landed here.

Even after that many years, the grape vines still caused trouble by giving the rose vines a perfect form to climb. We had fished out some of the more reachable, larger scraps over the years in an attempt to 'peck away' at the mess. Mostly, we just tried to ignore it... not being in a position to really do anything about it.

This year, though, that changed. I was sick of looking at it and my health was better, so the project got underway.

After about a week's worth of concerted daily bouts, it now looks like this. Rain in the forecast was an excellent motivator. I'm glad to have beat that deadline as it's been mostly mid-40's and raining (or threatening) since.