More Woodyard Scenicking

So, I couldn't let the granddaughters outdo me with work on the railroad, so I took a few moments to add scenicking touches to the pulpwood yard.  Seems most of my scenicking material comes from Woodland Scenics, and it seems I use a lot of different materials -- I'm sure WS is happy.

I jumped right on putting grass around the woodyard shed.  50/50 white glue and water was brushed around the shed and the "special blend" of turf used on one of the mill village yards was sprinkled on the glue.  Some earth fine turf was sprinkled from the doorway of the shed toward the yard -- supposedly, suggesting a footpath that had been worn in the grass.

Then I attacked the ballast, although according to the prototype photos that we established as our goal, much of the ballast will be covered with pulpwood debris.  Cody Grivno, Model Railroader, is my hero for ballasting, and I followed his approach, somewhat.  First, some fine buff ballast (from WS, of course) was sprinkled along the spur line.  Then some isopropyl alcohol/water was dribbled from a squeeze bottle onto the ballast.  Finally, a 50/50 mix of white glue and water was dribbled over the ballast.  Not exactly a Grivno job, but close.

In no particular order (because I cannot remember for sure), the following efforts were attempted:

• 50/50 brushed on area toward the far end of the yard with green polyfiber stretched over the glue.  Then some medium green coarse turf followed by a little earth blend blended turf for "highlights".  The highlights were "fixed" with Tresemme Extra Firm hairspray!  Later, some short sprigs of dried caspia were added with WS's accent glue.  Also, a few medium green bushes were dipped in 50/50 and placed on the polyfiber.
• 50/50 was brushed and dribbled over much of the remaining area, especially near the crane; then a little isopropyl/water was sprayed in hopes of breaking some of the surface tension of the 50/50 -- it worked, a little.  Following that, some well chopped floral "moss" was sprinkled to resemble wood debris.  The same was added along the spur, just about covering the ties and ballast over much of the line.
• The caspia seemed to work well for weeds, so some light green field grass from WS was tried in hopes of representing broom straw.  The accent glue was dabbed on the bottom of a "tuft" of field grass, but then the field grass seemed more interested in sticking to fingers than to the ground goop?  We'll see what the final results look like when the glue dries before maybe trying some more.
• I do remember that the last effort was to put a few little weeds growing up inside the track.  This was a little more medium green coarse turf with 50/50 to hold it in place.  I had purchased a set of tweezers at some point and one pair had broadened, flat jaws.  That seemed to work well for small pinches of turf.

Debris and broomstraw

Caspia and other weeds

Better focus on whole yard

View of loading pulpwood rack

We still need a bit more work -- more weeds, more broomstraw (maybe), and a mud puddle or two.  Maybe the granddaughters will come back up and help. . . .,