Thursday, July 1, 2010

Almost Done!!!--June 30, 2010

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Woke up at 8:00 A.M.  Grabbed some breakfast, took a shower, then headed outside to start working on the landscaping.  I started to pick rocks out of the dirt, but I realized that it was just a losing battle.  I picked several large ones out, but I knew that the small pebbles were probably just going to have to stay.  They were caked to the mud from days earlier, and even after tilling, they weren't any easier to sift apart.  So I began the task of leveling out the ground.

That didn't take too long, but I quickly realized that the left side was much lower than the right side...by an entire brick width.  Which probably explains why my front sidewalk has dipped down in that area.  That's where all of the water flows!!!  But I just didn't have enough dirt.  So I went to the backyard to steal some compost from the holes I had filled yesterday.  But it just wasn't enough.  So I made a call out to the ranch to see if I could pick up some more.  They were more than happy to get rid of some more.

I met my brother out there who helped me shovel a good amount into the back of my truck.  I hauled it back to my house and raised the lower area.  It worked out quite well.  I was now ready for the weed barrier!  So I called up my sister to see if she would come and help me for a bit.  She was more than happy to.  We spent about an hour or so laying down the weed barrier, overlapping it on top of the other strips, and then laying rocks on top to keep it from moving in the wind.

But the old rock was a mess, full of sticks and dirt and unmatching rock.  So I had my sister hold a leaf blower over the rock as I raked it back and forth.  It was certainly a slower process, but it was working quite well.  The dirt and sticks would blow away, while the large rock remained.  So we did that for about half an hour before we broke for lunch.

We came back outside and continued where we had left off.  I had to quit early, though, to go downtown and pick up a friend from the train station.  But we had certainly made progress!  I think it will look just fine when I'm done.  There is only one problem, though.  And it might be a pretty big problem at that!  Neither my sister nor I thinks that there is enough rock to fill up the black weed barrier.  Basically, I have taken out so much non-matching purple rock that I am going to be short the actual good rock.  Oh the joys of working on a home!!!  Oh well.  I want it done right.  We'll see what happens.  It's going to be close, but I just don't think I have enough.

I headed downtown at 1:30 and met my friend Angie at the train station.  We stopped at McDonald's for a very necessary sweet tea, then came back to my house where we chilled out on my deck for a bit, just talking.  She's a good friend from college, but we just don't get to see each other very often.  It was good to catch up.  But the weather was absolutely perfect, so we opted to head to Knight's Action Park and play some putt-putt.  I can't even remember the last time I played miniature golf!  But what fun!  We played a wonderful 35 holes (should have been 36, but we could only play the last hole ONCE on the two courses since it steals your ball!).  Oh well.  We played two rounds for the price of one.  She beat me by 3 strokes.  I wasn't very happy about that.

From there we headed to my sister's house to check out Baby.  We played a game of pool while there and just chilled some more.  Then we came back to my house for about 30 minutes before trying out a gyro place here in town.  The gyro was good.  The fries not so much.  Oh well.  We headed back downtown so that she could catch her train at 7:33 and walked for about 30 minutes before the train arrived.  And then she was gone!  Such is life.

I came back to the house, and I just had to stay outside.  So I started picking through the rocks one by one.  Literally.  I still have thousands left, but I am going to have to do this in order to pick out the unwanted purple rock.  It's time-consuming, but it's pretty easy.  My goal is to have all of the rock replaced tomorrow morning and the bushes planted on Friday.

I would finish it all tomorrow, but I am going up to Grandma and Grandpa's for lunch, and I have an interview with the local paper in the evening.  Going to be a busy day.  But I'm hoping to wrap up all the rock tomorrow morning with my brother.

Went to bed at a late midnight.  Got the alarm set for 8:00 A.M.

I am so ready for this project to be complete!!!

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