Came home to find some small flags, planted in the backyard. We’re going to be having work done next week, and learned that this was part of the process (although I thought it would be JULIE, turns out it was DIGGER – gotta love those acronyms).
Yesterday evening, we got a knock on the door around 7PM. It ended up being Carol Jean, a neighbor of ours from two doors down. She was just stopping by, and chatted with us a bit about our backyard (she had heard we were going to get some work done, and was just curious).
A lovely photo of Liz, with our house in the background. Bit by bit, we’re making things better. I cannot wait until this backyard area is all cleaned up. I’m truly looking forward to inviting folks over to come and hang out. Can’t wait.
The good news: we’re getting some landscapers to come in, and do all the work for us. We priced out a few options, and the one we’re going with is having an outside company come in, clear the yard, and level it for us. After they’re done, we’re going to get a delivery of sod and lay that down ourselves.
It’s funny – I used to be all careful coming up here, putting on a Tyvek suit and booties. Now, I just come up in jeans, a t-shirt, and a hoodie. Where I used to be super careful moving around, I’m literally just swimming in this stuff. I’m on my hands and knees, I’m on my back, on my belly. I’m hugging the dirty shop vac as I move it around – I don’t really care anymore. It’s like I’m taking a bath in all this muck, and it’s become normal now.
We were hoping to ignore the back yard until the winter came, letting the cold and snow take care of everything for us. But we’ve heard rumblings from neighbors as to the state of the back yard, so we’ve decided to bubble it a little higher on our task list.
Over the weekend, Liz and I spent some time attending to the piles of debris that have accumulated in our backyard. Though it’s a more expensive option compared to an actual dumpster, we opted to yet again go with a Bagster bag, just for the ease.
We finally got around to putting together Jake’s old grill, which he was kind enough to give us. Last weekend, Liz and brought the thing inside and started assembling it in our kitchen. One night after work, I helped with the final install and I’m delighted to say we have the thing up and running again! The grill, relocated and…
After work today, Liz spent some time clearing out a small pathway. On arriving home, I saw this and needed to take a picture – as it seemed like she was carving a very narrow pathway across the entire backyard.
View of the backyard, currently. Despite attempts to clear out a bit by the house, the backyard is pretty much doing its own thing. We’re not really able to devote much time to this area, as we’re concentrating on the interior of the house. Still amazes me how quickly the backyard can grow, if left on its own.
She started to clear out some of the plants near the back of the house. She also discovered that there’s a really large amount of brick that seems to be buried in the ground. Underneath the concrete we have (which seems like a very thin layer), there’s a base of brick.
In her wandering around the yard, Liz happened across a flower that made her really happy. But me, on seeing the Lily of the Valley… I couldn’t help but think of Breaking Bad.
One golden birthday coin for one birthday zombie boy. One can only wonder whether he at his birthday cake or the other children at his party, first.
The backyard has really bloomed, following the rains these past few weeks. We set up an old bird bath a few weeks ago, and at the time… the ground was pretty barren given all the work that took place, when we had ” target=”_blank”>the trees removed.
With all of the work going on in the house, we have (unfortunately) a small pile of debris building in the backyard. Mostly it’s excess wood, old cabinets, and things that I’m slowly getting rid of via the weekly trash pickups.