Stick a fork in me.. cause I am D-U-N !!!!

... pitch fork that is....

So stage 3 of my journey to a much more pleasant back yard is complete.....

It all started about 4 years ago when we bought our house. There was a beautiful tree smack dab in the center of our back yard.



She was a bute, but she wouldn't let sunshine in at all.... the good thing was that it was always cool... the bad thing was that the ground was always mud. At first we thought we were going to put landscaping stones everywhere, but that was way out of our budget. We tried sodding it, but becuase there was no light, we had no luck. Then Mike was going to make a tire mulch play ground, but way too extensive with drainage systems, blah, blah, blah. So we kept it hidden behind a 6 ft fence and pretended that it didn't exist.

We then noticed that thousands of tiny guests had decided to eat our tree from the inside out, so the tree had to go... I was so sad to see her go. She really was beautiful. But like the old saying goes, when God closes a door, He opens a window... and when this window opened Mike and I finally decided it was time to put some real time, money, and elbow grease to work and create a back yard our childen could enjoy....

First... we killed eveything that was left... tilled...



then tilled some more... tore down the fence.... (sledge hammers and lots of built up frustration and energy... so much fun!!)

We then had 4 yards of dirt, 3 yards of mulch and 2 pallets of grass delivered....



Everybody helped....



....and right at at the end when I thought I was going to die from exhaustion, the calvary showed up in the form of my mother and my sister with her kids. The kids kept my kids occupied and mom and Karen helped Mike and I level the ground and lay the sod (truly angels that I will never be able to thank enough)... and now we have this......





I am pretty sure that I have never worked so hard for so long in my life. I am always the big dreamer, never the big finisher. I am so proud of me and my husband for making a realistic plan, sticking to it and accomplishing the goal. We still have a lot of waiting for the grass to take and the bulbs to bloom, but I am looking forward to seeing he results of our labor.

Thanks for hanging in there with me, Ta Ta !



....next we do the garage!