Landscaping fabric does work well but the railroad ties are a good idea as the edges tend to turn over and slide down with driving pressure. That looks like a deep ravine to have only two small drains in it. If you have a rain like the one in Louisville yesterday you may have blow out. You did an excellent job with your tractor work. Best of luck to you from a Jackson County boy.
Ended up using the old 6"x16"x16' creosoted bridge beams I had in previously and it worked out really well. My skid steer guy felt like we'd lose a lot of the rock without something to stop it on the steep banks I created. The right side going toward the house didn't look as good as the neighbor's side because I had to supplement with a railroad tie, but I might be able to even them up. The neighbor's side is lodged between my fill and the edges of the gully on both ends so it makes a cool little 16" wide walkway next to the land bridge. With railroad ties on the sides to make a rustic guard rail, it's almost going to look like we have a stepped/tiered layout.
Re the deep ravine kenc. Yes, it's deep, but it's at the gully heading and there's surprisingly not much water at all that flows through the two 8" culverts. I've checked. Soil conservation guy felt like these two culverts should be okay after I assured him of the situation. And all this rain we've had this year didn't touch the topsoil fill with a single culvert I had in place since Sept of 2012. I checked during one heavy rain that flooded streets in the neighborhood a few months ago and maybe an inch of water was in the bottom of the culvert at the most. The only erosion with a single culvert was due to runoff down the driveway. With two culverts, it's just a non-issue.
eeshup, It sounds like there may be an issue with the tree, but no matter - I really need to get rid of it since it crowds you as you're going out the drive. I get uncomfortably close to mirrors every time I drive over it. Not much experience with large trees and felling them where I want to go. Did some stuff with my Dad, and figure I can hook two 20 foot cables and a come-a-long to it and pull on it while I'm cutting. Of course, I'll wedge it opposite the neighbor's first, then cut a little higher while cranking that come-a-long. Should work.
I'll post some updated pics once I get everything cleaned up a bit more, and put some railroad ties on the sides to make the wife happy. Any ideas on securing those? Drive some channel aluminum down as far as I can get, then put the ties inside that? --Steve
