Let the fun begin!

Our current story begins on Friday night. There is this rototiller that has made it's way being borrowed through many of Chris' coworkers, and we've had it now on two separate occasions at two separate houses. And the crazy thing is this thing has probably only seen a few hours of work.

So Friday night we went to go pick it up from our friends Jeff + Taryn who used it recently on their yard.

(Aside: They have the biggest backyard I have ever seen. I am so jealous. I can't even explain what they could do with all of that room -- put a Little League baseball stadium in maybe. And the best part - it's a totally blank slate. I told them they should start a blog about all the work they've been doing on their house and yard, just to make people like me jealous. They even have plans professionally drawn up! I can't wait to see the progress they make, and even help them along with sod and such...)

So Saturday Chris and I finally tackled rototilling and flattening the one of the ugly lumps in our backyard. We were going at it for about 10 minutes or less when the rototiller died and wouldn't start back up. So Chris' dad came over and looked at it this morning, diagnosed the problem as a off-track belt, helped us fix it, and we were on our way.

Today we spent much of the morning rototilling and moving the dirt into a mound in the middle of the grass, right where the dead and live grass meet. We broke for lunch around 2pm, and when we went back outside, there were these little bugs swarming everywhere. it was so gross that we decided to give it a rest until they disappear (if they disappear). So here we sit, coverred in dust, dirt between the toes, (I actually just killed one of those bugs on my neck as I was writing this), dried-sweaty skin, waiting for these bugs to go bye bye. (Click picture to enlarge and see swarms of nasty bugs)

This morning we were met by a lizard protest when we tried to rototill. The biggest lizard of the bunch didn't like that we were a little close to his house. He stood his ground while the rototiller made it's way a few feet from him, and didn't flinch. Then as we were shoveling dirt into the wheelbarrow to move it out of the way, he'd come on to the grass like he was going to do something, protesting our work. It was really quite funny because he kept doing it as long as we were out there. As Chris put it, "He was beefin' with us and the rototiller."

We knocked down the ugly hill by at least 6-10" today, and hope that we can continue somewhat flattening it out over the next week or so. Then we'll plant a cover crop on it, and once that's mature in a couple months, rototill it in. Speaking of cover crops, the plot I put down last week has already sprouted! Cool!

Unfortunately, we have to lose a couple large trees in our backyard, because their final height and width was not considered when they were planted (not by us), and are now pushing up a rock wall and ruining a fence. (people, please don't make me get on a soapbox about planning for a plant's final mature size when planting....a pet peeve of mine because I see it EVERYWHERE!!) So two trees will need to be removed right now, and then we can plant the fruit trees we ordered from PCFGS when they arrive in late December.

It's going to be a busy couple months!