The Back Yard Page

What happened to the bathroom ???? Welllllll here's the thing... This project was always in some part of the planning stage, one of those yeah, we'll get to it someday type of projects. So it was a spur of the moment thing to go to the 'earth-products' store and get some stones for Ro's Island.

I am all for it, it means less lawn for me to mow, and it will cover the places that just get muddy when it rains. Best of all, it will cover the mystery dead spot. The dead spot is rectangular in shape but too short for a coffin. Nothing will grow there. I have planted lawn seed there at least five times. Each time it gets about an inch tall and dies. Baby's tears creeps all over the place, but not there. Weeds don't even grow there. NOTHING grows there !

30-Dec-1998:
So far we gave the lawn a severe mowing, sprayed it with Roundup, and put down some black plastic. Ro placed the major stones while I washed the truck. Now we need to get about 5 cubic yards of river rock delivered. The plan is to have a little island with a tree in the middle surrounded by small river rock with strategically placed stepping stones... Sort of a riparian, volcanic theme due to the rocks we are using.

2-Jan-1998:
The truck just dumped 7.5 tons (5.5 cubic yards) of rock in our driveway. Ro is moving it from driveway to the yard in a wheelbarrow as I write this. Our neighbors, Larry and Reggie, saw Ro schlepping rock by herself and took pity upon her. Larry came over with his wheelbarrow and started helping out. I started schlepping too. Reggie brought us drinks and is making us dinner tonight. THANK YOU LARRY AND REGGIE !!! Life is good. Tomorrow, I am going to Larry and Reggie's to cut up their kitchen cabinets for a dishwasher.

We reduced the pile of rock by at least three-quarters. We covered the area we wanted to and covered a bunch of other places too. The side yard, the front rose garden, and the side rose garden.... we still have rock left over. OH NO ! We will just pile it higher and deeper. At least there is enough room to park the truck in the driveway.

3-Jan-1998:
THE PILE IN THE DRIVEWAY IS GONE !!! We piled the rocks deeper everywhere we put rocks yesterday, covered the northside yard (also known as the dump) filled three sacks and then made a pile of rocks for later use. We ache, we hurt, we groan, we spa !! Without the spa, I don't think we would have done diddly today. We moved 7.5 tons of rock. That's fifteen thousand pounds or Two hundred and forty thousand ounces or for those metric heads...Six million, seven hundred twenty thousand grams.

This is the before shot, actually way before: Funny, in this picture the lawn looks nice. In reality it's full of dandylions, a hole from an old tree stump and yeccch bermuda grass.	Here is a more recent before shot: Over the years we: ripped out ivy, trimmed the trees, planted and re-seeded the lawn, planted baby's tears along the fence, put in a border of redwood around the yard, removed the peach tree (after it split and fell over), put a rock garden around the statue of the kids and watched things grow and replaced the things that die.
Put in the big rocks, the pavers and the black plastic.	TA DA ! All done... Click here for shots of the other places we put rocks...