Autumn in the air

One of the perks that lured us out here was having family around. It had been a while since our kids had seen their cousins and The Professor said yes to the guy on the phone who asked if we wanted a free night at their resort if we listened to their time share spiel. So the kids got to sleep at The Farm and we got to zip up the mountain and enjoy a peaceful fall outing in "the most normal city in Utah" {whatever that means. I guess if you consider a resort town full of reeeeally rich people "normal," but I digress.} And then we got to come home with a car full of pumpkins, corn on the cob and cornstalks for the front porch. I've been trying to come up with fall decorations without buying anything and the wreaths I've redone four times just weren't doing it for me. This is much better. Though I admit I feel a little bit like those lazy animals in the Little Red Hen. We'll help you Eat the corn...
Did you also notice the pots of hydrangeas and other shrubs scattered in the flower beds? This week I have been foraging local nurseries and garden centers for advice and clearance stuff for the yard. It has been educational, exciting and disappointing all at the same time. {disappointed about not being able to grow blueberries or aspen trees but excited about the peonies, hydrangeas, roses, honeysuckle, clematis, wisteria, fruit trees and all. The only thing that is still evading me is what trees to get. I mean, it's one thing to throw in a few of these and a few of those when it comes to flowers and bushes, but a tree is, well, a TREE. So many variables.}

Easy has not quite appreciated the experience as I have, except for the fact that garden centers have wagons to pull around and nice workers who give her free geraniums. She actually fell asleep in the cart at Walmart on Thursday after I had dragged her around all week. I can think of one other time she has done that, other than in infancy.

And here you can see how nice the grass is coming along in the back yard. There's the lineup of roses and peonies. The Professor actually said, "Are you sure you only want two rose bushes?" Say No More!! I mean, seriously, when I can buy a rose bush for twelve dollars versus a bouquet for ten--at the very least. No brainer.

What comes after Lightning

Right around lunchtime on Monday, wait, backup--Friday and Saturday we spent putting down peat moss and getting our grass seed topped off. It looked pretty tight, if I do say so. I said to myself, I need to take pictures for the blog. And we could see some green spots where the grass was sprouting.

OK, now to Monday, right around lunchtime I heard some thunder. Saw some lightning. Went to the window and saw some light rain. . .turn into a flash flood. That's right. And hail, to boot.The gutters literally could not contain it all, and the water was pouring down over the sides all around the house. I just stood there, realizing there was absolutely nothing I could do.

Here is a picture of the front yard right after the rain stopped. {It only lasted about ten minutes.} The water kept streaming for a while even after the rain went away since there was so much water. The glare from the light makes it hard to see the streams of water washing over the sidewalk. Bye bye, seeds. Bye bye, peat moss. Bye bye, topsoil. {And good night to the old lady whispering hush.}Here's the hail residue.You can see it better in this picture of the back yard. At least in the back yard the water didn't carry it off of our property. {We're going to have all kinds of stuff growing out of our storm drain with all that peat moss and topsoil that landed there.} Actually, after a few days we realized that it wasn't as bad as it seemed at first. Since there was a lot of seed that had already started growing, it pretty much stayed put. So we bought another pound or two of seed and filled in some of the bigger gaps and then topped it off with some more peat moss.

I guess the good news is that it got plenty of water.

grow, baby, grow

can you see them??

how 'bout now??

that's right. the seeds are in the ground. {or on the ground....}

it took a bit longer than I thought, but it was 3500 square feet after all.

and there were a few kinks to work out along the way...

now we just have to keep it wet.

here are a couple of things I learned today:

--the wind can work for you or against you when spreading grass seed.

--ants will carry grass seeds away.
--it's never as easy as it should be.

{wait, I already knew that.}

Convalescing

So Friday and Saturday were two days of miserableness out in the summer heat. Now I have a noticeable farmer tan/sunburn. I have regained the use of my limbs today. Fingers are still a little iffy.

Friday was spent raking out the rest of the medium rocks in the back yard and topping off the retaining wall with the extra big rocks. It was hot.

Saturday we spread out topsoil and finished the sprinklers in the back. It was really hot. My favorite part was having to dig back up a sprinkler head that had gotten covered up with the final grading/backfilling by the retaining wall. Took a while to find. It was really really hot. And then we tested the sprinklers. They were all in backwards. Had to turn em all around. Yeah, that little white line on the side that was supposed to be on the left...nope the other left.

We bought the seed for the grass. Cost $77. So, is it just me, or does that not sound significantly less than a thousand dollars for sod? Then why did all the landscape guys try to convince us that it really isn't that different?? They tried to tell us that by the time you water the seed and yada yada then you end up at pretty much the same cost. I don't know, but I will be surprised if we spend *$900* on water.

the moment we have all been waiting for...

First Day of Kindergarten Before/After:

everything you need to turn five

Package in the mail.

Check.
{She carried it around for three days.}

Sammies for lunch. in your jammies.

Check.

Cream puffs. Check.

Dancing.

Check.

Chocolate Cake with pink frosting.Check.

Pizza for dinner and flowers from Daddy. Check!

We are so happy we do the dance of joy!

At the crack of dawn yesterday the pump truck made its appearance. You can see the sunrise in the background as the pump goes up. Luckily our cement guy was there first {6 am}. So this time I knew it was going to stay for a few hours.

I couldn't get excited until the cement guys were actually here. In our driveway.The truck operator got everything in position. Here you can see the pump extending over the house to the back of the driveway.They started pumping at 7 and were done about 8:30.Here is the patio after they had poured it and smoothed it out a bit. We had them add color to make it taupe.I almost didn't think to have the kids put their hand prints. Phew! We stuck 'em on the edge of this little extension of the driveway extension. We'll put our garbage can & recycle bin back here.After the concrete was ready they broke out the stamps. That's what everyone charges boo-coo bucks for. This guy was the best price by far. He charged us with the color and stamps a little bit less than the lowest bid we got from anyone else for just plain old gray cement. And it made me feel even better about the whole deal when the guy who drove the second cement truck {we had one with taupe for the patio and one with plain for the driveway extension} said we had some of the best guys doing our job. He said there are very few that he would recommend, and these were some of the best. That was good to hear. {So if anyone in the area needs cement work done, let me know.} Now that the patio is done we just need some steps. I would have liked to do some steps like these... ...but that plan was pre-emptively thwarted by the *geniuses* who put a window well directly below our door. Oh well.