Grass Is Always Greener Than Dirt

Its everywhere. I thought it would be gone by now, but its still here leaving its mark all over our shoes, clothes, and my kitchen floor. I look at all my neighbors' yards (enviously I'll admit) with luscious grass, blossoming flowers, and shady trees and see that it really is greener on the other side. But I realize there is a time and season for all things. Right now its our time for dirt. I can't complain too much because although the yard installer works slow, he does it right. "Measure twice, cut once" he always tells me. Sometimes I think he measures three or four times, but at least I know he is doing it right and that we are going to have a beautiful yard to enjoy...one day.

It has been, and continues to be, a long process to meet our end goal of green grass. It has made me grateful for a husband who is not only willing to work, but gets passionate about it- especially given my physical state and inability to work too much right now. Heath has saved us thousands of dollars by going the do-it-yourself route. I may be biased but I think his work has the same quality as the professionals. We've also had help from family and neighbors so far. I truly appreciate being surrounded by such wonderful people.

Project Green Grass began back in May. Given the concrete, clay-like dirt we are surrounded by, we rented a tiller attachment for the bobcat we borrowed from Heath's dad. Heath and Jack went at it, tilling up our entire yard. Jack LOVES riding in the skid-steer with his dad. He spent hours in it with him. One windy day, after helping dad drive the "ta-chor"for nearly an hour, he came out of it caked in dust and dirt with a huge grin on his face. What a boy.

Next came the landscaping and leveling. Because our front yard has a big slope we made two levels and added some big landscape rocks Heath's Uncle John gave us. Thanks John! Many of our wonderful neighbors helped Heath place the rocks. Even with my father-in-law's bobcat, it took a lot of hands! Thanks Mace, Jake, and Richard!!!

It was clear leveling was Heath's favorite task and the one he was a perfectionist about. He told me several times, "We need a flat lawn to practice grounders on Wife!" Pulling a baseball field grate behind the four wheeler did the trick. It brought most of the rocks to the surface and gave us the flattest dirt yard in all of Stansbury. Heath, Jack, and our nephew Landon (who's really more like a brother to Heath) cleared out, what seemed like, endless piles of rocks.

The last few weeks have been devoted to the sprinkling system. Using an online program, I designed the basics of it.  It felt great to contribute somehow to the Project Green Grass.. After some minor tweaks to the plan, we were ready. Trenching, pipe laying, gluing, valve installing, sprinkler head attaching, pipe burying, etc etc... has filled every spare second. Jack catches on to the work thats going on pretty quick and is eager to help. He often followed Heath around the yard with his shovel, pieces of PVC pipe, or a sprinkler head and he quickly became an expert at filling in trenches.  We can almost smell the green grass! After spreading out the huge pile of top soil we have sitting in front of our house the sod laying will begin. Hopefully I'll get to post pictures of the final results by the end of the summer...