Sweet Sixteen

Yesterday Jeff & I put 13 plants & shrubs, and 3 trees in the ground. Needless to say, every part of my body is sore today.

And not a moment too soon, the wind is blowing, it's raining, and pretty nasty outside. Yesterday the weather was gorgeous. So sad to see our indian summer end, simply because I know what's headed my way.

We did all that with 3 little kids that had "Halloween Hangovers". So glad it's out of their systems now, and today will be back to normal.

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary

How does your green grass grow?

As most of you know, we have been working outside all summer (it seems anyway) on trying to get our yard together. We had to do our trampoline pit, construct a wall down there, before we could even begin our sprinkler system. Due to the fact that we had no clue as to what we were doing, it took about 10X as long as it should have.

Because we live in the foothills of the Oquirrh (pronounced "O-kur") mountains, our dirt looks like this:
Tons of rocks, of all sizes. We made some screens, and (so far) have sifted out 110 wheelbarrows full of "clean" dirt, in our front yard. That means we've (Jeff) hauled over 30 wheelbarrows full of rocks to an undisclosed location (Jeff is paranoid every time he hauls one away, that the cops are going to drive up as he's dumping them, cuff him, and book him. Yes, a little dramatic.).

Jeff is VERY into the yard, has done more research than anyone I know on types of seeds that will grow the best, as well as, look the best. He sent off a soil sample to the Utah State University to find out what our dirt lacks. He ordered in compost (mixed with some bark to retain moisture) to mix into the dirt. He has a fertilizer tank hooked up to the sprinkler system that fertilizes every time we water the grass. And don't forget about the moisture sensor that shuts off the system if the ground is wet enough. After so many hours of research, he also found rebates for everything from the timer box, to the moisture sensor, not to mention the money we'll save by having the sensor.

He is often seen on his hands and knees, checking his grass seed. The weather report is big around here, making sure the seed can grow in the temperatures we're experiencing. And DON'T come by during the recent rainstorms we've had. It's depressing watching the sifted soil and seed wash down the street.

Look at our cute little seedlings that have grown over the last 2 weeks!

I'm sure we'll be sprinkling more seed in the spring, because a lot of seed did wash away.

Next summer: The backyard (uhg!)

Our unusual dates

So, I can't quite recall the last time my husband and I went on a dinner and a movie date. But that doesn't mean we don't go out. We go out pretty much every weekend, and about 5 nights a week. Babysitter? Oh no, we don't need one of those. We just put the kids to bed, open the girls window a bit, and leave.

Our dates are in our front yard. We are in the process of putting in our sprinkler system, and are constantly sitting in the dirt. Or in a hole.

We had most of our front yard trenches dug when we had a huge rainstorm. A few of them led to a 4 1/2' hole we dug by our water meter to hook up our line. So, that meant we had 4 1/2' of water to bale out before we could work. It rained again the night after we emptied it, so the next day we had 2' of water to empty. Don't you just want to jump right in?

So this last Saturday Night we decided to stay in for our date. We were at the kitchen table assembling our RPZ (backflow prevention device), valves, and pressure reducing valve. We had the mood lighting, and I told Jeff - It's just you, me and the RPZ.

We really need to get out of here and on a real date!