More grass!

Except for the crime scene tape, our front yard is looking almost normal.

The grass is filling in nicely. 

So are the weeds. 

Oh well.  Any green is better than no green, right?

April 2012

Twelve years

Today is Ryan's twelfth birthday. 

He woke up bright and early with a big smile on his face. 

Of course, who wouldn't smile when there's a big pile of presents waiting. 

Oooh--Hot Tamales! 

Sharpies! 

 An eight function multimeter!

 OMG--it's an iPod!

April 2012

Grass!

April 2012

A conversation with Darcy

April 2012

Dirt

Yes, this looks much better.

April 2012

Yardwork

Two years ago,  in an effort to fix  ongoing sewer problems, we cut down our only tree and dug up most of our frontyard.  Since then, our plumbing has been trouble free.  Unfortunately, the same can not be said for the yard.

Recently, the city of Aurora has let us know that bare dirt is not an acceptable ground covering.  It doesn't matter that our soil is so poor that even weeds won't grow on it.  We've been told we need to fix it or else.

So...  This weekend we've started the fixing process.  Step one involves removing the top two inches of dirt.  To do this Seth borrowed a coworker's 1962 Ford truck and used it to pick up a rented sod cutter.

Darcy helped Seth with this step. 

Strangely, she really seemed to like the old truck.  Seth swears she was completely silent while riding in it.

I had important things to do yesterday, so I didn't actually see the sod cutter in action.  Today, however, the whole family has worked together to remove the cut sod.

It's a long slow process... 

but the kids are sticking with it.

After all, each wagon load nets them fifty cents.

You can tell by the smile on his face that James is busy counting all those pennies.

Off to get another load! 

April 2012