Boggy Hole Chronicles

The Boggy Hole Chronicles

The Boggy Hole Chronicles is an illustrated narrative about the 15 acre parcel I purchased simply as a building site for my weekend house. The story begins 40 forty years ago, early before construction would begin and continues long after the house was finished. It is my own tale of “The Stewardship of the Land.”

Click on images to enlarge.

Great potential, was my first reaction to this 15 acre parcel of land that I would purchase as the site for my weekend retreat when I was working as an architect in New York City. A thickly wooded marshy bog, gradually rising to undulating green moss and lichen covered rocky outcrops and steep slopes, this site was aptly named for its location; Boggy Hole Road.

Work begins on weekends, clearing, cutting, dragging the brush and burning.

A roadway was excavated around the bog, a culvert was installed that could be dammed to control the water flow of a stream that ran through the bog.

This became an important factor in land clearing. In the winter, the back water would freeze, allowing a firm footing for more tree cutting, then sliding the logs to a safe central location for large bonfires (avoiding the need to call the local fire department to put out brush fires when things got dry in the spring.)

Coming up from the city and working most weekends, progress was slow. However, being out on the land year round, allowed time to thoroughly contemplate the site. Awareness of the seasonal changes of the prevailing breezes, the light, the rising and setting sun, the views of what would become “the pond” all began to formulate into a vision of where the house should be sited.

Beyond the perimeter of the marsh, which was to become the pond site, the topography was only suitable for raising sheep, rocky, irregular and containing soil types that would be unsuitable for what I envisioned to be lawns and meadows. However, early into the project when Billy and Eddie, local excavating contractors, were excavating for the roundabout road into the property, it was discovered that the “Boggy Hole” was a true peat bog. Under this peat layer on the north end of the marsh, the soil was dense clay that could support heavy earth moving equipment. Jim’s bulldozer would push the wet peat to the side of the marsh and Howie in their excavator would lift the material over the edge where it would sit for a few weeks, until it was dry enough to be moved and spread. This is where I would become actively “hands on” involved.

The first member to join my fleet would be a 1953 Ford 8n tractor with York rake and blade attachements, this was followed by a Case 580C backhoe, then a powerful old International 1800 Loadstar dump truck. The South end of the marsh lay between two rocky ridges running north/south. The inner edges were sloping at an angle that would indicate that the bedrock continued deep below the surface of the bog. Since the post-glacial period about 12,000 years ago, this granite inverted barrel vault would be a collecting basin for sediment carried by what I imagined was once a rapid running stream. Test borings by driving a long steel rod into this soft material indicated a wide, deep pocket of brown fertile peat.

Preparation for excavating this peat would require unconventinonal engineering techniques. In the early phases of clearing the pond site, an area was selected for a future island. This area would become the depository for logs and winter bonfires for huge piles of brush. Years later during two very cold successive winters, 10 foot logs were slid out on the ice by block & tackle and placed together like the wooden ties in a railroad track. When the Spring thaw arrived, the logs would drop down into the mud creating a continuous solid mat between the makeshift island and the shore. The following year long trees would be cut during the clearing process and hauled out on to ice by the Ford 8n and slid into overlapping aligned rows over last season’s “ties” creating the closely spaced “rails” of the tracks.

Prior to continued activity in the wetlands, an application was submitted and the Old Lyme Conservation Commission granted approval to excavate approximately 2000 cubi yards of material and create an island. The following spring, Ned came to the site bringing his crane with a 60 foot “stick”, clam shell bucket, drag line and heavy wooden pads. The excavation would begin, digging bucket after bucket of material that would be dropped into the back of my waiting dump truck, which would be hauled out back to a receiving area I had prepared beforehand. Ned could walk his machine out along the causeway picking up, swinging the pads around in front, moving and digging his way out to the island, often double, sometimes triple handling the material until it reached back to the solid shore. After Ned was finished for the day, I continued on the backhoe, loading and hauling, making room for the next day’s dig.

This routine went on part time all summer into the fall (Ned, claimed he was retired, I had busy architectural practice that needed my attention). We finally had to stop digging when the areas around the pond were so heaped with material that the crane couldn’t maneuver and the outback “receiving areas” were covered to capacity with rich black peat. Considered finished for the time being, the crane was backed off the island, breaching and removing the causeway as Ned maneuvered back to the mainland. Two years later when all the material was spread and landscaped, Ned would resume the operation digging, and I would be hauling again.

The next pond dig would locate Ned’s Bucyrus Erie 22B on the opposite side of the pond, wedged in between the house and an existing oak tree I did not want to loose. A cribbed framework of timbers from previous clearing operations were buried within compacted fill to provide a firm platform foundation for the crane. Early on in my “heavy equipment” acquisition program, I considered buying a small John Deere 350 bulldozer. In retrospect this would have been a bad idea, considering the capital expenditure, the on-going maintenance for a used machine and of course the skill level required to operate a bulldozer. So after the gravel and wet peat mix was dry, I brought in Pete from nearby Chester with his JD 450. Working on an hourly rate, it took Pete less than 12 hours to do all the necessary grading that would be required for the eventual grass seeding and mulch hay.

The site lived up to its potential. According to archaeological digs in the deep rock shelters within the high cliffs that bordered my property, woodland Indians had inhabited the caves since 1,500 B.C. The Town of Old Lyme, Plan of Development, under “Notable Events” mentions; 1674 Road built to Boggy Hole Swamp. The receding glaciers that carved the rugged topography also dropped a very useful seam of bank run gravel on the property. This material, besides providing a solid base for the driveway and wood trails, could be mixed and stirred with the rich and dense peat using the front and rear loaders of the backhoe as an “eggbeater”, thus providing fertile, aerated topsoil for plantings and the “lawns & meadow” I had always envisioned.

When I was a young boy, my friends and I used to compete building forts and tree houses. After a few weeks we would lose interest and then look to build another one. The fun, of course was in the building, finding the right tree, how it would function, what it would look like, gathering or “borrowing” the materials and so on. When I completed construction of my home, I didn’t lose interest like it was a childhood tree house, but would continue having “fun” working the land.

The Boggy Hole Chronicles will also continue in future installments; ”The Steward of the Land”. Also mentioning articles, such as from the recent Newsletter of the Old Lyme Conservation Trust, Inc. Protecting Wood Ducks and Other Waterfowl in Old Lyme. “Wood Ducks are considered by many to be the most beautiful waterfowl in North America.” These Wood Ducks can be seen in the early morning congregating in small flocks at Boggy Hole Pond and return annually to nest in the Wood Duck houses set around the pond.

To view the finished interior & exterior design of the “weekend retreat” 40 years later, visit Hartung Architects.