Operation Back Yard--Weekend One

This weekend, we started working on cleaning up the back yard, or what we lovingly refer to as the dirt pit. I wish I had some before pictures...Mike spent about 5 hours yesterday raking and bagging dead grass. (I was busy shopping with my mom and getting my hair done. I felt pretty bad about that...) Today, we were out there for about 4 hours. We pulled the dead bushes from the rocks, broke up the gazillion tumbleweeds (yes, we have tumbleweeds and some were as tall as the fence), pulled weeds, and raked and bagged it all. We filled the holes from the bushes the previous owners took with them, pulled a bunch of random metal stakes out of the ground, and discovered that we are missing 2x4s from the fence. We called it a day around 3:00. I made chicken alfredo for dinner (with homemade alfredo sauce!) and then we went and had ice cream. Not a bad way to end a productive day of hard work.

The yard, though we have a long, long way to go, looks much better. It's very gratifying to see the results of our hard work, even if it's a little bit at a time. The whole project is still overwhelming. Though we did make a couple of decisions today-- we are going to pour a cement patio instead of build a deck and all the rocks along the back fence must go. We also have about 100 square feet of brick patio that we've decided to tear up-- the concept is good but it's kind of in the corner of the yard, though it doesn't go all the way to the fence, and it's kind of a quarter circle with wavy edges. It won't work in our master plan (or what plan we have, which isn't a whole lot). Let's just say, I know what we'll be doing this summer.

The dogs helped Mike all day yesterday, so they really had no desire to be out in the hot sun today-- though Molly found some time to roll around in the grass and Nani came out and sniffed our piles of trash every once in awhile.

The weather this weekend was beautiful, by the way. Mid-high seventies. But it's supposed to snow tomorrow (northern Colorado and southern Wyoming are under blizzard warnings). Which I am kind of excited about as we need the moisture very, very badly.

In other house news, I got some pictures hung on the walls last week--woo hoo! I was all excited to print wedding photos for some frames that we have and get those hung up, but the stupid photo printer ran out of ink. We got another cartridge but I haven't been inspired to get back into that project. Mike's parents will be here in two and a half weeks, so hopefully it will be done by then. I just have to keep telling myself...a little at a time.