Our Yard is (sort of) done!!

Day 1: Olivia, with Ruby, in the Front Yard- At this point the landscaper, Joel, had used a tractor to remove the top 3-4 inches of weeds, old grass, rocks, and dirt.

Day 2 & 3: The backyard had also been cleaned up using the tractor and these large boulders had been put in place for our sandbox. I will admit that these boulders aren't placed where I would ideally want them, but I watched Joel putting them in place, and lets just say its miraculous they even made it here.

This is the side of our house, where it was also graded, and these rocks were placed.

Day 8: Previous days were spent working on the sprinkling system front and back, and putting in the good topsoil. Here is the front yard finished with grass and a tree.

Picture of the side yard from front porch.

May 2: Our first problem with completed yard- LOTS of rain, and the drainage on side yard created river, which washed dirt onto grass in backyard.

So Kurt spent yesterday hauling boulders that had been cleaned out of our yard from the empty lot behind us in the car to the front yard, then lugging them to the side yard, and placing them to help break up the side yard. Hopefully this works, but we haven't had any heavy rain again. yet.

Picture of backyard with sandbox.

May 3- Today: Problem 2 discovered- Deer tramping through our backyard in the night. Because of all the rain, and soft topsoil under the sod we plan on staying off the grass for 10 days to 2 weeks. Apparently we forgot to let the deer know the plan. Here are pictures of Kurt trying to fix the deer tracks without making bigger holes.

Deer tracks through grass and planting area. The big ones on the upper right are from Kurt yesterday- he tried carrying boulders through there before loading them in the car, but he sank.

Getting muddy!!

So all the major stuff was taken care of by Joel, the landscaper we hired, and he did a wonderful job. There are a couple small projects for us to finish- putting down weed fabric and rocks on the smaller side yard and under the stairs. We also have a major project- selecting, purchasing, and planting plants. And planning and putting in our vegetable garden. And because its OBVIOUS that the deer are going to be a REAL LIVE PROBLEM (I'm still in shock about having deer in our backyard last night-hello?!! We had a real deer or 2 in our backyard last night!!), we will need to plan for that.