Here's how to make a huge mess of your yard

This weekend is the rental of the skid loader or "Bobcat". It's a really useful tool for moving rocks and dirt around and placing them right where you want them. It's also a dangerous tool, as after a hour you feel you have mastered everything there is to know and then you run over the tomatoes. At least, that's what I did. They survived in their raised planter, and after we scurried over to replace the masonry blocks they were not much worse for wear.

Moving all this dirt and backfilling around the house is exhausting--we got about 9 hours of sleep last night and didn't hardly move. Woke up really sore and stiff--who'd have thought that driving the Bobcat could beat you up so much? Here are some pictures to show you what's been happening. We need to finish it up tomorrow so we can take it back to Vandalia rental.


Linnea working on Saturday moving our supply of river rock. We call it river rock because that's what we had in California growing up. Out here in Ohio it's glacial rock, as a glacier went right through our house (where it would be anyway), cutting the limestone and granite into little bitty rocks and tumbling them as it went. So convenient to have a rock quarry on the back of the property.



This is the front of the porch, showing the retaining wall under construction. The drain pipe from the gutter runs under the front eave to collect water and send it down towards the pond area. Yep, Linnea found a place for the pond that she wants to build.




Here is the front yard area--I told Linnea that this is the biggest mess she has ever made--it must be a whole acre that has been torn up. Compare it to this picture from before the Bobcat!