Shovelling For Five Hours Is Not An Easy Workout

Gregg goes between the priority levels of certain projects. For example, last week the dining room took the top spot. The week before, it was the office and before that, it was all kitchen all the time.

Weber Summit, Natural Gas

This week? 

Getting to and from his man-monstrosity grill, his fabulous birthday present from me, without having to maneuver over mountains of rocks and dirt and getting disgusted with the site along the way.

So your first thought may be, why in the world do you have piles or rocks and dirt in your backyard? Well it's all very logical of course. The equation is simple:

 dirt from years of disregard of grade levels + dirt from digging up old flower beds + dirt displaced by water proofing basement + 3 tons of stones leftover from water-proofing project = mountains of fun

In order to make the yard inhabitable we had to do five steps.

Step 1:

Dig up dirt, cut through boulders, roots and trash

Step 2:

Shovel dirt into wheelbarrow

Step 3:

Carefully drag wheelbarrow full of dirt down three stairs and dump into dumpster

Step 4:

Level dirt (trying not to get all over face)

  Step 5:

Place layer of Weed Block Pro fabric along dirt to prevent future weeds

Step 6: Shovel even layer of rocks on top.

So you may be thinking, sounds easy enough? Not exactly...

My war-wounds from the day: blisters & very dirty everything

So after almost six hours of back-breaking work in the hot sun (yes of course I got burned) we got through about 75% of the project.

*UPDATE*

Three Bagsters of Dirt & Waste (each 3,000 lbs)

 We spent another 8 hours shoveling, digging, fighting massive amounts of roots - Yes Mr. Maple Tree, the war is on and I have an axe! - we completed our backyard (for now). We still have to build our patio dining set (below) but we're all set!

Martha Stewart Living Miramar Dining Set

 Next year, we'll build a wood privacy fence to allow us some seclusion from the neighborhood but that's down the road.

Sweeping Up After A LONG Day

Closing this post with the just some of the successes from Gregg's green thumb.

The Watermelon Plant Has Gone Crazy!

Sunflowers

from left to right: Watermelon, Snow Peas (in planter), Carrots, Artichoke, Okra

from left to right: Tomatoes, Broccoli, Lettuce, Jalapenos, Radish