The Big Dig

Having lived in a construction zone for the past 6 months or so, I thought it couldn't get any worse - or at least any messier. But of course it could. We spent much of the weekend and Monday working on our backyard project.

As you saw (maybe), Jeremy used the excavator thing to loosen up the dirt and dig deep. Then he used this "Toro Dingo" - basically a bulldozer - to move dirt away.



Remember the raised beds we built? (It was only a blip in one of my recent posts, so I forgive you if you have no idea what I'm talking about.) Anyway, after those were built we each took one end and carried the frames up to the front yard. After the yard was dug down enough and at the right level and slope, we carried them back, set them in place, and I [painstakingly] shoveled them full of dirt and then covered them over with most of the compost from our compost bins. Can't wait for next years garden! (These beds are 16 feet by 4 feet each.)





Here's Jeremy continuing to move dirt. Perhaps to his right you can see some of the enormous pile of dirt we have to deal with. We want to keep some of it - but not this much! We've advertised Free Dirt in several places but have only had a couple takers so far. (Anyone reading this blog need some dirt??)



So here is the new topography of our backyard, for the most part. We uncovered that super heavy piece of pavement in the back and haven't quite figured out how we're going to move it. Not even our heavy-duty rented equipment could move it!



Now, catching up to present time - this shot is from this morning (Tuesday it poured rain all day and Wednesday was warm enough to scrape and paint, more on that later). If you look closely you can see some of the path we outlined through the yard.



Which I dug...


...and dug...


...and dug...


...and dug... all day long! But I didn't finish it yet.


In the end we decided to work more on the rain garden so I could get some plants in before it (maybe) snows on Saturday!