Side Yard Fun

Saturday was a long and tiring day.  Joe (and Amanda) and Matt (and Jade) came over to help.  We decided to use some of the dirt pulled out of the pool to build up the side yard.  The builders originally made it a pretty steep slope, which was not great for water shedding or for lawn mowing.  So, we used the dirt from the pool to build it up so the slope was less, and sloping the ground to multiple drains and pipes to carry the water all the way down to tie into the drainage pipe and storm water at the back of the property.  Joe was super helpful and brought over his tractor, so we used his front end loader to take load after load after load from the back yard, up our driveway, down the street, down our neighbor's driveway (Thanks Sam!) and then dump on the side yard of the house.  Wheelbarrows and shovels and rakes, oh my!  Seriously a long, hard day.

Sunday we went to church and then had to finish the side yard.  We were soooooo tired!  It was hot and we had been digging trenches, putting in pipes, fixing fences and moving dirt.  We were glad it was mostly done, but gosh, it was rough!

Monday (technically the 4th week of June) the kids and I had some work to do.  It was supposed to rain torrentially later that day, and we were super afraid that all of the hard work we had put in to move the dirt would be washed away.  Not only that, it would then make a huge mess for Sam.  And hubby had a ticket to Florida and meetings he couldn't miss.  So, the kids and I were tasked with laying the sod.  Hubby left his truck at home so I was able to drive out to the sod farm and pick up 2 pallets of sod.  We had some starter fertilizer and a hose and away we went.  I parked the truck out on the street, and got the kids to start working.  I stayed down by the dirt, spread the fertilizer and wet it down before each new row of sod.

 Again, we had been digging late into the night (because we had to wait until hubby got off work) and doing lots of manual labor and sweating our butts off.  This was just one more hot day of work.  The kids made a bit of a train and took trip after trip with piece after piece of sod.  The good news is, that this stuff was fresh.  So the pieces didn't fall apart on us like the last time we laid 16 something pallets of freaking sod!  But, it was so hot.  And muggy.  And the kids were tired.  So I took to spraying the kids with a hose as they came down in an effort to cool them off.  That meant, when we were done, they were soaked and covered in dirt.  So, when we went into the garage, I had the kids strip to their underwear, and leave their soaked, dirty clothes outside.  They ran upstairs to take showers.

The thunderstorm that afternoon gave us a very pretty and complete rainbow!

 Since we've been in this house, I have seen some of the most vivid rainbows I have ever seen.

 Like, you could see every color!!!

 As a reward, I offered to get the kids anything they wanted for lunch.  We were all soooooo tired, but now thankfully clean.  They voted for Hibachi Express!  That meant a trip into Columbus.

 It was a lunch well earned!

I am so glad my kids know how to work hard (even though they occasionally whine about it {Kelsey}) and that they all pitch in and help.  It made the work go faster!