Below are the “before” pictures…

Then we rented a “Barreto” Tiller to tear up the dirt and grass. This thing [...]]]> The project that will never end…our back yard…has seen some significant progress over the last week. A project that began on June 14, 2009…has finally, more or less, come to completion. Yes…it’s taken us six months…embarrassing, I know.

Below are the “before” pictures…

Then we rented a “Barreto” Tiller to tear up the dirt and grass. This thing was no joke…designed by a guy in Seattle who was annoyed that he couldn’t get a tiller that would break up the clay in his back yard. Even this beast had difficulty…not because of the dirt but due to the bolders we found in the dirt.

We didn’t get back to the project until September…that’s when we ordered our supplies and built our first bed.  Maria thought they were very fun and enjoyed playing on them.

We have attempted to get out and work on the beds a number of times…but it never seemed to get done. With a whole week of time off of work left, we committed ourselves to getting the project done.  Once the beds were done, we started installing the dirt…I ordered up 6 cubic yards of dirt.  Today as we entered the home stretch, even Maria got into the action; at Lowe’s I found a “Maria Sized” shovel, rake and hoe!

At this point we probably have 1 cubic yard left in our driveway and I’m starting to think that we probably need 4 more to finish off the beds and maybe a 5th to refresh the beds in our front yard. Ugh…more dirt moving.  But at least the back is starting to look “done” and definitely on it’s way to completion. Here’s a few pictures to compare from the “before” pics.

So that was our New Years Eve week in the dos Remedios family.  No wild parties…instead…Backyard.  We’ll have to figure something out for next year to make up for it!

On Christmas day, we spent most of the day prepping [...]]]> What a wonderful Christmas season. But after celebrating Christmas v1.0 (Idaho), v2.0(Sarah, Maria and I) and v3.0 (the dos Remedios family)…I’m exhausted. I don’t recall ever being so overwhelmed by Christmas…one of the worst problems that come with getting older I guess. How sad.

On Christmas day, we spent most of the day prepping for the big Christmas dinner. The intention of the dinner this year was to keep it simple and small. Grandma Judy, bless hear heart, invited a few neighbors just so they’d have a place to go for their holiday meal. That’s when the wheels came off. ALL of the neighbors that were invited accepted. Then, Ken’s son, Tim and his family called a few days before Christmas and shared that they too were coming to visit on Christmas day. Quickly, the group of 7 that we started with became a group of 18.

Tim, Stacia, Mitch and Sam made it around 4:00. It was great to see them. They hadn’t seen Maria since last Christmas. The twins were very excited to see her. Maria did her shy thing for a little while…but she was pretty quick to be playing with Sam. By the end of the night…she was pretty much rotating between the two and having a great time with them.

The dinner was fantastic…and while it was a larger group, everyone blended nicely. The highlight for me was the introduction of Green Dessert to the Meyers family…which was especially good this year as it was easy for me to eat.

They day after Christmas we packed up and got on the road as quickly as we could so we wouldn’t be driving in the dark. The drive home was completely different then the drive over. Maria took a nap…Lucy napped pretty much the entire way…no tickets…and we made great time (7 hours)!

Once we got home we took some time to unpack and settle…then we held Christmas v2.0. We had a good time, the four of us, opening our gifts to each other and enjoyed being home. Maria’s favorite gift was probably an Abby Cadabby doll. (She’s a fairy from Sesame Street who turns things into pumpkins…I didn’t know a few months ago either.)

After it was all said and done, we had a great time celebrating Christmas with our family…and enjoyed another year of very generous gifting. Thank you all!

Below are a few videos to share…the first two videos are both cute and short. The first of Maria looking for my parents cat, Nutella, at Sarah’s Mom’s house. Nutella likes hiding in bathroom drawers and cabinets. The second, I’ll just call it a montage of Santa celebrations. The third video is a “Directors Cut – Grandparent Only – Extended Version”…it’s just over 9 minutes long. Feel free to watch if you’d like…but you better have a decent high speed connection, and a bit of time. Consider yourself warned.

Yes, this is a project that started back on June 14th…somehow the summer got away from us. Part of it was that we weren’t able to [...]]]>

Anyone interested in doing some Labor this Labor Day (tomorrow), or anytime this month for that matter…you’re welcome to drop by!

We have a somewhat grand vision for the yard; three beds (2 raised ones [...]]]>

We have a somewhat grand vision for the yard; three beds (2 raised ones for herbs, fruit and other produce and a mounded, more decorative bed) as well as a spot for a Italian plum tree to give us delicious fruit and to give Lucy a little extra shade. The biggest challenge we have is our soil, it’s a terrible clay like substance which is bad for growing things…and is near impossible to work with. Our goal for day 1 is to loosen up the dirt in the areas where the beds and tree will go and begin the labor intensive process of sifting the sod and rocks out of the dirt.

My dad and I started to break it up the dirt with a pick but it was a little harder then we wanted, so we’re renting a tiller. Mind you, this is not just any tiller, it’s a 13-hp, 800 lbs beast! (For anyone that knows me, this should be no surprise.) The tiller we rented was designed by a local guy who was frustrated that he kept breaking other tillers…so he built a high powered, uber-tiller that can plow through pretty much anything. *Giggle “uber-tiller” My only fear is that the tiller will make such quick work of our soil that I’ll be inspired to use it to rip up the entire back yard…a project we’ve talked about…but something we’re not quite ready to tackle. Besides, THE Lucy would be very sad to lose her entire back yard for a couple weeks/months.

Our hope is to have the shells of the beds completed by the 3rd of July so that we can have our soil delivered and use the entire three day weekend to move the dirt into it’s new home. Right now I’m estimating that we’ll need 10 – 11 cubic yards of dirt which is A LOT of dirt. For those who don’t know how much dirt that truly is…here’s a picture of 2 cubic yards…and remember, we need about 10…oh momma.

I will keep a running log of our progress with the backyard here on the blog, in addition to our regular family happenings.

Stay tuned…