Next Time Dig Deeper

I believe we are the 3rd owners of our current house.  When you buy a house that was previously owned you find every owner did their own special things while they were there.  Our sprinkling system is a prime example of this.  It is now a hodge podge of three owners worth of repairs. 

This summer a group of men spent several hours digging up our back yard just to get the system running again.  When we discovered to fix things properly they'd have to spend at least another week digging up the front yard, we decided "running" was good enough for now.  We'll tackle "fixed" another summer.  If we ever move the 4th owners are going to be so pleased.

Like I said, this group of men dug up 80 percent of the back yard and left us with a "fixed" sprinkling system.  However, they also left us with a large pile of dirt.  Apparently they dug up 80 percent of the yard, but only put back 70 percent. 

This pile of dirt and rocks did not go unnoticed by the children.  It became the home to two black beetles the boy found at the park.  Chase used it as a construction site for his John Deere digger, Davis used it to scavenge the rocks he likes to hide in my garden boxes.   And it was in this pile of dirt that Madison and a friend found a little something one of the previous owners left behind--the remains of a family pet.  Bones, collar, and tags.

The men working on our sprinklers HAD to know they unearthed a dog while digging massive trenches in our back yard.  Right?  Maybe Not.  I don't know.  Either way, this particular dirt pile is no longer welcome in my back yard.

The Summer of the Lawn

We have dubbed this year the summer we attempt to take care of our lawn.

This was the situation

This picture was taken after I'd sprayed the weeds no less than three times.

Not only did we have a serious weed problem we had a pretty major sprinkler repair which resulted in trenches being dug all across our back lawn.  When they flipped the fixed sprinklers on, a whole row of sprinklers we'd never seen before popped up.  I'm pretty sure the previous owners didn't know they were there either.  They also told us that we have 5 sprinkler boxes, 2 in the back and 3 in the front.  But we'd never seen ANY boxes in the front.  EVER.

After a lot of digging and stabbing things with the shovel, they found 2 of the 3 boxes.

The two they found are inside the curbing, under the ugly white rocks, and even under the black weed barrier material.  Its really a miracle we found them at all.  We still have no idea what those white pipes sticking out of our patio are for.  We have one in the back yard too.  But like I said, we found 2 of the 3 missing boxes--one is still MIA.

Quick side note: If you're in need of large quantities of white rocks, contact me, we'll talk.

So now the sprinklers are working.  And by "working" I mean they are no longer spewing water into the basement window wells.

But it hasn't all been fun and games.  Michael was dying to make me a new planter box, so I let him.  I'm all heart.

He also built a small one for Madison.  She is very excited to have her own little box and even has a tiny little tomato on one of her tomato plants. 

See the white pipe?  WHAT IS THAT?!!

So there's the yard.  Its a work in progress.  Hard work and slow progress.