Back Yard: Phase 3

Album | Slideshow

We're making great progress on the back yard. Tuesday I decided to take Wednesday off so I could be home to receive the cedar chips for under the swing set/play structure.

If I'm going to use up a vacation day, I better make it worth it. So I put in another marathon 13-hour day and got a huge amount done.

I had started cutting the lumber for the swing set on Sunday morning before heading off to Father's Day activities with my parents and sisters. Monday and Tuesday after work I spent several hours assembling the structure with a little help from my next door neighbor Jeff.

Wednesday the first order of business was to finish the swing set before the cedar chips arrived. The chips were supposed to arrive between noon and 5 and I completed the assembly right at noon.

The delivery arrived at 1:30. 13 yards of cedar chips makes for a very large pile! I could have spent a little more and had it blown in, putting the chips exactly where I wanted them. But there wasn't a blower truck available until the weekend. So it was me and a wheelbarrow. At least the chips are a lot lighter then the dirt I've been shoveling throughout the project.

It took me about 1 1/2 hours to distribute the chip and even them out. I had run out of landscape fabric in the corner of the play area so I couldn't spread the whole pile. But I installed the swings. Carol and the girls were in Richland visiting Carol's parents (and having a wonderful time) since Friday but were expected home about 5:00. I wanted the swings to be ready for the girls when the arrived.

Once I got all that done, at about 3:00, I went to Home Depot and rented a rototiller to till the areas where we'll install sod: about 1300 square feet. My first discovery? Rototilling is damn hard work. After a while, though, I figured out some better adjustments for handle height and "tail" depth and how to stop fighting the machine. But I was still quite exhausted when I completed the task after 5 hours (8:30pm).

Meanwhile, the family arrived home at about 5:30. The girls were very excited about their new play area. They both spent a long time on the swings. Audrey just recently learned how to pump herself on a swing, and she perfected it while in Richland. So she hopped on and took off on her own, immediately swinging as high as her swing will go. Charlotte wants a "baby swing", but she was happy to use the regular swing today and complained whenever either Carol or I wasn't pushing her.

Eventually Carol coaxed Charlotte into the house, but Audrey stayed out on the swing set for more than an hour. She kept trying out all the parts: the swing, the platform (Audrey calls it "the balcony"), the cargo net. As soon as we spread the rest of the pile of chips I can install the slide, which is the part Audrey is most excited about.

So it was a very long day of work, but I made huge progress. Just a couple of hours of leveling and raking and we'll be ready for sod! Once the sod is in I'm taking a few weeks off from landscaping.

P.S. This morning after breakfast the girls decided they wanted to go out and swing. It was about 60 degrees out - not too bad. Audrey got her self all bundled up with hat and scarf and I got Charlotte in a fleece. After a little while of pushing Charlotte I came in the house for breakfast and they had fun by themselves. Audrey even pushed Charlotte for a little while.