After (1 Day ago):
Back yard before (1 year ago):
And after!
Yesterday we got our sod in!
Not many of the people who helped us read this blog, but I'm sending thanks out into the ether anyhow:
THANK YOU!!!
It looks so different than a couple of days ago--much better. Of course, the trees that are dying stand out more (to me, at least). Happily, they're all from a nursery which sells trees with a 1 year guarantee. Best thing to take your mind off shriveled trees? New grass.
Thanks to so much help, all of the sod was laid quickly and before I knew it, my opportunity to document the event was slipping away along with our volunteers. My brother-in-law, Eric, reminded me to take pictures, but when I got out my camera, it wasn't working.
Noting that the battery indicator was low, I put the battery into the charger for a while. Nothing improved about the camera with the quick charge the battery was given, but I kept trying, because it worked sporadically. I finally put it away with no useable pictures when the camera persisted with it's bad behavior.
Talk about aggravating -- I would try to take a picture five or so times and then have a random shot succeed just when I had lost my patience.
I realized this morning that I had left it on self-timer. Ha. I now know for sure that my patience has limits: specifically 8 seconds.
As you can see, my brother-in-law got some pictures with his iPhone, so it wasn't a total loss.
Speaking of brothers-in-law...I have have great ones, two of whom helped yesterday. Special thanks go to Eric and my sister (with their boys)--they came early and stayed late. They helped with everything from Lucy-sitting and Gatorade shopping to housekeeping--not to mention laying sod and cleaning up the mess outside. After all other sod-layers had gone, Eric helped Brian troubleshoot sprinklers. I helped by turning the water on and off and Monica...well I'm not exactly sure what she did, but I do know that by the time I got back inside, our house was spotless.
How much would I have paid to watch Brian and Eric troubleshoot sprinklers? With lots of unpredictable water-under-pressure and mud, it was entertaining. Before you finish your own estimation (of what you would pay to watch), don't forget that it's a job which can only be done with hands on the sprinkler, and this means a face is only an arm's length away. By the time they were done, the two of them were sodden. Literally.
It was worth at least three dollars; and I got to watch for free. Thanks, guys.
As he pushed a wheelbarrow full of sod, one of our (fabulous) neighbors asked me who I thought would be happier about the grass, Brian or Lucy. Look at Zoe. I'm not sure it's a two-way decision.
