Putting in the Yard

 This spring and summer we have been busy trying to get our yard done.  We began meeting with landscapers in February to get bids for things.  Eventually we decided we would hire someone to put in the sprinklers, but we would do the rest ourselves.

We began the process by raking and raking the yard to remove rocks.  We had an enormous pile on our RV pad that needed to be removed.  Everyone kept looking at us like we were crazy as we continued to remove so many rocks from our dirt.

So after a really slow start due to spring snow storms and shortages in labor staff, the sprinklers finally were started.  We had 2-4 men, a tractor, and a skidsteer working for 2 weeks to get them done.  Isaac and I toyed around with the idea of doing our own sprinklers, but after seeing how much work it took we are really glad we didn't.

After the sprinklers were done, we brought in 7 or 8 truck loads to topsoil and mulch.  We rented a skidsteer and my dad drove it around for 2 days spreading it around.  We decided to put a layer of mulch down over the entire yard because our soil is so rocky and made of clay.  Then we spread the topsoil on top of that.  It took 2 solid days of raking, but we did it.  (And we couldn't have done it without the help of my parents.  We asked family to help, but Isaac's family never made it down.  Jamie and Jason did help for a while, but my parents were here for 2 solid days helping us.)

Then we had our curbing put in.  We have a lot of curbing, but a dad and his 2 sons came one day and did it in a few hours.  They have a weird little machine that they shovel cement into and it poops out curbing.

Then we were supposed to get our sod delivered.  But the sod harvester broke so the delayed it a week.  Then we got some huge rain storms which flooded the sod fields and they were too wet to cut.  Our family was going to get out of town for the next few weeks, so we decided to have they install the sod since they gave us a really good deal for delaying multiple times.  (Although it was nice that we didn't have to do the work, I don't think they did a very good job and would have done it better if we did it ourselves.)

We thought the yard work would be done by the time we had sprinklers and grass, but it has still been ongoing.  We then had our fence installed.  We had planned to wait on that, but with the river so close to our house we decided that it would be nice to contain Luke in the backyard for safety.

And on top of that we had to plant all our bushes, flowers, and trees.  We were going to Home Depot and the nursery almost daily to buy loads of plants, mulch, and rocks.  It's been a lot of work but starting to look good.  It will take a few years for the plants to grow, but hopefully it will look good when it fills in a little.

Recently we have been busy working to control the weed growth.  After a month or so we think it is getting better under control, but we still go out daily to pick them out of the sod.  And we just started on our flagstone patio/firepit.  Originally we were going to wait on this as well, but Isaac thought we should just get it done.  So hopefully that will be completed in the next week or two.

Putting the yard in has definitely been more work that we expected.  Now that the end is in sight, we are sure glad it's almost over and we have a nice yard to enjoy.  But we feel bad for all our neighbors who are still trying to figure out what to do with their yards.