From the day school got out (May 30) this summer, we have hit the yard work HARD!!! It started with the fire pit, for William's Birthday Party. Then, we decided that it is more than past time to clean up the rock wall around our house, place top soil in it, and plant bushes.
We spent two days placing the weed barrier down over the rock/dirt, and then, using the pick axe, Ben dug about 15 holes and we planted Boxwood and lilac bushes all along the wall.
In the main time, We order a truck load of top soil, which they dumped on the corner of our lot.
 |
the kids thought it was awesome
|
I spent the next week, shoveling that dirt into the wheelbarrow. Pushing the wheelbarrow over to the rock wall, and then shoveling the dirt out of the wheelbarrow and into the rock wall.
 |
| That tiny patch of top soil took me about 2 hours to shovel, wheel over, and shovel out. |
It was miserable. Absolutely miserable. It was very, very hard work. The wheelbarrow was extremely heavy, the shoveling made me extremely sore, and trashed my hands, and it was hot outside. I worked and shoveled, and pushed and shoveled and dumped, over and over and over again, hour after hour, day after day. In between, I was taking care of the kids, teaching piano lessons, babysitting, driving to cheer, driving to gymnastics, navigating play dates, driving to scouts and mutual, getting snacks every 5 minutes, T-ball games, and everything in between. It was nuts!
I did have Mary and Sam, together, do 5 loads each day. It was very, very hard for them, and they hated it, but they did realize how much work it must be for me to be doing it all day, every day, and they also appreciate that dang rock wall, way more than any other kid ever will.
By the end of the week, the wall was done, and it looked awesome!!!
We still had a good chunk of top soil on the corner of the yard, so we decided to finally get our mound done. This came to some serious disappointment to our kids, as well as the neighborhood kids. This mound has been the community bike jump for 5 years. The kids were so sad to see it go.
The mound took another 4 days to complete. We got trees and more decorative stone, that was the easy part. Shaping that HUGE dirt pile was a whole other story. It took hours of shoveling, raking, shaping, more raking, more shoveling and more shaping. We have to move it back about 3 feet, just to get it back into our yard. It was covering the sidewalk completely in some areas. Once again, I was out there working for hours, among everything else. Ben helped in the evenings when he got home, which made a big difference. We finally got it done...and I LOVE IT!!! I am no longer frustrated when I turn the corner to get to our house. I am excited to see our pretty mound. I have had a ton of compliments from neighbors and friends as well. I think they are just excited to have the sidewalk back..haha!!!!
 |
You can't really see the trees in the picture. There are fruitless plum trees on either side
(maroon color) and a weeping flowering cherry tree in the middle. That HUGE part of the sidewalk in the front was covered in about 3 feet of dirt, and has been for about 4 years. We had no idea it was even that big, or that it was even there. It was so hard to shovel, sweep and scrape that back, because it had completely hardened to the texture of cement, but wow, it looks so much better!!!
With the mound and the rock wall done, I was seriously giddy!!! Our yard was looking loads better than it ever has, and big progress was being made. This was not without a ridiculous amount of time, work, energy, blood, sweat, tears, and hard earned money.
Our neighbor bought a trampoline, and was going to dig a hole in his yard to put his trampoline in the ground. He offered to dig a hole for our trampoline once his was done. He owned the equipment to do it, and he had the knowledge. We were so excited!!!! We have been wanting to get our trampoline in the ground for 5 years, but we just can't justify the $900 it costs to have someone dig the hole for us.
Our neighbor, Brett, told us to make sure we called Blue Stakes, to have people come out and mark the yard to make sure we knew where all of the gas lines, water lines, and cable lines were before we started digging.
I called them that next day, and had them record my phone call, as well as type up the instructions I gave to as to where in the yard we would be digging.
The next day, three different companies came out and marked the yard. I noticed that one kid marked the front of the yard, instead of back by the playground, like everyone else. I figured that the gas line must just be in the front.
The next day was the big day. The kids and I were so excited! I was babysitting that day, and the little kids loved seeing the big tractor out there digging a huge hole.
|
As he was digging the hole, I went out and began mowing the lawn while the kids played. I was mowing right next to the playground when I heard a huge hissing noise coming from the hole Brett was digging. I looked over and saw something spraying about 30 feet into the air. I thought he must have hit a sprinkler pipe, so I started running over to our main water line to turn it off. Then, I smelled it. It was gas.
Brett tried to put the bucket of the tractor arm down on the pipe where the gas was spraying out, and then he jumped out of the tractor and told me to get out of there. He was already on his phone calling someone. It was so loud, and gas was spraying everywhere! I couldn't believe it.
I ran into the house, and gathered all of the kids and made sure we had no open fire in the house (candles, etc). The house was filled with the smell of gas, but everyone seemed fine.
Within minutes, we could hear the lights and sirens. We had 4 fire trucks, about 9 police cars, two safety inspectors, the sherriff, the water company, the gas company, the cable company, and about 5 other cars show up within the next 15 minutes.
The police evacuated our cul-de-sac, aside from me, and they blocked off our neighborhood streets. The sent officers to each and every house, to warn people and to monitor the gas levels in their house.
I was dying. So was Brett. I didn't really know what to do. We very quickly realized that the kid that marked our lawn for the gas line, had marked the completely wrong spot. I quickly took pictures of his markings, and all of the other ones as well. I took as many pictures as I could, of everything, in order to take care of us legally. Other than that, I just had to sit and watch and fret.
They had an officer sit in my house with the kids, to moniter the gas levels in the house, and to keep them calm while I was out dealing with everything. Ben was trying to get home, but was held up in Park City due to a wreck.
Pretty soon, the gas company demanded that they start digging up the lawn in order to get down to the gas pipe and clamp of each end on the sides of the hole. I sat and watched them dig up our lawn, tear up or rock in our parking strip, pull up or weed barrier in the sand box, dump rock and dirt all over the lawn, the playground and everywhere in between. I watched them leave tractor tread divits all over the lawn. They pulled up sprinkler pipe and ran over trees. I just watched in horror.
They ended up digging 3 holes about 10 feet wide and 6 feet deep. It was 90 minutes by the time they clamped the endes of the pipe and got down to the hole.
 |
| the hole in the pipe |
The whole 90 minutes, gas was spraying, and it was LOUD! I was talking to police, the gas company, the marking company, and a few neighbors, just trying to get things figured out. Ben finally got there, and was able to talk to the kid who actually marked the lawn wrong. Ben got a recording of the kid admitting to his mistake.
They let the neighbors back into their homes, they opened the streets, they packed up their stuff, and they left.
They left a mess, and I cried.
Our yard was torn up. Our sandbox was torn up. Dirt and rocks were in piles everywhere. Sod was torn out. Tools were left. It was so disheartening. All because the kid that marked the gas line in the yard read to mark the south east corner instead of south west. He read one word wrong. ugh
We spent a lot of that night, (the night of William's OUTSIDE Birthday party) and the next several days filling in the holes, trying to replace sod, getting the trampoline in the hole, shoveling and wheel barrowing dirt and rock off the lawn and out of the sandbox, and basically trying to put the yard back together. We are still working on getting financial compensation for all of the damage, and for all of the hours we have spent fixing the damage.
It was absolutely nuts! Truly nuts.
In the middle of that, Ben got me cement for my Birthday. I never, in my wildest dreams, would have thought that getting cement for my Birthday would be so exciting to me that it rendered me speechless. haha!!! We had our back patio extended out (another thing we have been wanting to do for about 4 years). It has been next to impossible to find a contractor that will actually show up to give us a bid, much less give us reasonable bid. Ben worked his magic, and the day after my Birthday we had a back patio!!!
We have spent all of this week, once again, with a pick axe, a shovel, and a wheelbarrow, rounding out the left over rock and dirt, in order to do a paved stone wall around the patio. If I thought the top soil mound was horrible to move, this was pretty much hell. Not kidding.
 |
| We had to pick axe, rake and shovel all of the rock and dirt so that it comes straight down from the cement. Yup. Absolutely terrible. For real. |
The worst of that project is over now though. Now is the fun part.
I currently have 2,200 pounds of paving store in the pathfinder right now. Tomorrow, I will start building the wall. I am really excited!!! Pictures to come...
And that folks, is the continuation of our yard saga. My new mantra....one rock at a time will eventually move a mountain.
