Our woods is far from being in a natural state. It bears many scars from encounters with it’s human caretakers. Some of them are mysterious. This for instance.

It is a box lined with logs and rocks on three sides and on the far side is something like a wall made of mud and stones. Next to it is a stack of three cinder blocks. Ready to be used for …. what???

What is the intent of this structure? It has the dimensions of a child’s sandbox. Of course it is filled with sand because that is the kind of soil we have here. Maybe that is the reason a sandbox comes to mind. I happen to know that the last owner of this place had a young grand-daughter of elementary school age. Could this be a place where she played?

It also occurs to me that it could be a place for trapping water. The far end looks a bit like a dam and this structure is located at the end of a long narrow low space. The land slopes here and it is possible that in a heavy rain, water could run into the box and be trapped. The soil level is lower inside the box that it is outside. The water would have subsided quite rapidly however, so it would be of little use in creating a pond. Perhaps the intent was to prevent runoff from washing further down the hill. That would explain the dam at the far end but not the log at the close end.

I need to come to this spot during a rain and observe the flow of the runoff. Perhaps then it will become clear to me.