Backyard Cleanup

After we gardened and beautified everything along the side of the backyard, the kids decided it would be cool to clean up the area behind the garage to make it a nice place to sit and play. We began the process a couple days ago and didn't think we would ever finish. If you have never seen the area behind my garage, imagine this...













and this (plus 2 more cans full)...













here...













and here.













It looks far better, don't you think? We had tons of weeds, lots of small trees, and wood. Some of the wood had been there since we bought the house, and some of it a friend gave to us. Jeff and his buddies used to get together at our house on Friday nights to grill. One of them would get meat and they would grill it, eat it, and then sit around and burn wood on a small outdoor fireplace until the wee small hours of the morning (very manly, lol). That hasn't gone on for a couple of summers, so we had all this wood sitting out there rotting. I kept some of the nicer long pieces, figuring we would cut them up and we could sit outside and burn them on some nice evenings this summer.

Kyle and I removed all of the small trees, stumps and all. That was a chore! Most of our soil is not really soil...it's clay. Digging in clay is almost as difficult as digging in bedrock, LOL! Fortunately, the one place we have some nice soil is behind the garage. I think we counted 7 stumps that came out over a 2 day period, and my back was relieved when that was over! We obviously have some more work to do, but this is such an improvement over what it was that I keep asking myself, "Whose yard is this?"
The girls really like the new area, especially since Grandma brought over the sand turtle. Here they are hanging out in the tree (no pun intended).



















On another backyard improvement note, Kyle's garden gnome can finally see the light of day. He is "stuck" under my lilac bush which until a few days ago was just surrounded by lawn. As I was mulching the garden I thought it would look really mice to mulch around the lilac as well. Mr. Gnome thinks it was a good idea too. This will also make mowing around the lilac easier. YEAH!