Here we go again...

Another project.... Someday I look forward to being happy with my environment. No major projects left, just maintenance to keep things going. But, today is not that day.

So, still no ceiling in my dining room (waiting on Dad to come up and help me with that last tidbit to finish up the bathroom project) but I had to start on the last outdoor project. I say "had to" because I needed to get the grass growing so the kids might get to use the lawn at some point later in the year. Why did I decide to take this on? The side of our yard is a swamp when it rains and any other time it is a barren, dusty waste where I can't get grass to take. When they built this place they put about a quarter inch of "topsoil" on top of a solid layer of clay and nothing will grow. To make things worse as JAM has been getting older and more active with playing games we have really killed anything that was trying to grow right around where we usually put home plate. :)

A face lift was seriously in order. You can sort of see the sorry state of the lawn in the pictures below. And up near the sidewalk is where the grass was growing the best! This isn't only a lawn project. I am going to finish off the planters by building the final planter between the front door and the back gate with a spot for a bench and a marble stone walkway. With all the tromping we do back to the gate the grass doesn't have a chance there so the walkway is a necessity.

Rented a pickup to help out with the project. On Saturday I made two trips to Home Depot and Lowe's to pick up supplies. They guy at Lowe's were not happy with me when I asked him to help me load all this junk into the truck. :)

I have really REALLY good friends. I can't comprehend how lucky I am, what I did to deserve such amazing friends. I asked, begged really, a few buddies to come over and help me bring in a few truckloads of dirt. Yup, shovel after shovel of dirt in a rented pickup on a cold and rainy day.

The families joined us for a cookout, or cookin as the weather still stunk later in the day, and it was a really good kind of exhausted.

Started really working on the installation part of the project yesterday. The install has been delayed a bit because after beautiful days in the 60's and 70's it got so cold during the overnights this week. I needed to put Thompsons on the landscape ties but the directions said not to if it was going to dip below 50 degrees. I finally gave up on that and treated the boards on Friday.

We had a lot going on yesterday, with our family participating in the March of Dimes walk and JAM's art class in the morning and then JAM's friends coming over to play I didn't have all day to work. I started to lay down the first course of landscape ties but realized that I needed to think about the drainage so I stopped that and only got to dig the drainage trench (man that was next to impossible - DAMN CLAY!!!!).

I was really looking forward to getting some boards laid down today but I wasn't sure because the forecast wasn't looking too promising. I knew it was a washout when I woke up to the rain (and Pudge's crying) at 6 this morning. It didn't stop for more than 5 minutes all day so half a weekend down the drain, literally.