Saturday, October 11, 2008

13 tons of top soil is no match for us!



We've been in this house for over 11 years now, so some of the parts of the house and yard are showing their age. One area that I've despised for the last few years was an island in the front of the house. It had a number of junipers and weeds and flowers and weeds.

Well, a month or so ago I started pulling up the juniper bushes. The first set were horrible to get up, but that was because I didn't have the right tools. The second weekend I was able to pull up 5 more within an hour or so. A couple of more hours of work and the island was gone. Except for the holes, hard packed Georgia red clay and roots from the birch tree.

So, this morning we had 13 tons of top soil delivered. Yes, 13 tons. Next week we have a landscaper coming out to over seed the whole yard, including the new areas.

We had a number of doubters about whether we'd be able to move this amount of dirt without a bobcat or a lot of help. Several people recommended I go to Marietta center and get some, um help. If you know my political leanings you know there is no way I'd do that.

Instead, I borrowed 3 wheelbarrows and an extra shovel and the whole family joined in. At our best, Meghan would have a load 3/4 full when I came back with an empty wheelbarrow, then I'd finish hers while she started on the new one. Deb had a smaller one that she was filling and dumping. Courtney was helping with Christopher and dumping small Tonka truck loads herself. Christopher, well he was a toddler with 13 tons of dirt in his yard. Click over to the Flickr site for a bunch more pictures.

Total time: 3 hours and 15 minutes to move 13 tons of dirt. We rocked!

Before:




During:







After:



2 comments:

Kimberly said...

You definitely rocked it! Nice work. Did you have to bribe the kids to chip in? What's your secret?

ryssee said...

That actually looks like a good time was had by all! :-)
Hard to believe you've lived in that house for 11 yrs and in that area for much longer...I haven't lived anywhere more than 5 years since we left UMass. Living with Randy the last 4 years is the longest anywhere since then. Wow.
Nice house and the 'stang in the driveway is pretty sweet. And you'll be happy to get rid of that island that was annoying you forever!