Landscaping Highs and Woes.

Paul and I had a superb little weekend. We are tearing up our entire backyard and re-doing it. Last week we started ripping up our yard little by little when the time allowed. And the weather was just awesome for yard work. I loved being outside working so very much - and the snow today is putting a big cramp on my plans for the week. Oh well - can't complain when the Lord decides to give you 'moisture', right?

The first to go was the totally ugly retarded brick pathway, then the rosebushes surrounding the deck were dug up and thrown out and the Quakies were poisoned to keep them from coming back when we rip them out, and finally, we worked on ripping out the deck. Initially, Paul and I were only going to sand down the deck, replace a few boards, and re-stain it. However, it was brought to our attention by my mother that the best thing for us would be to get rid of it and put down a concrete patio. Why??? Because my neighborhood has a little rat problem. I don't like admitting that but whatya do? Anyway, we can poison to our hearts content, but they will still keep coming back...because they have built homes under our deck. And the more I think of it, the happier I am because the deck was retarded, too and we didn't really like it but didn't really want to do something about it either. But this will make our yard look so much more spacious and lots lots cuter. We are really excited.

So our progress on our yard so far:

This is the retarded brick pathway mentioned:

All gone!!

Our deck before we started and different phases:




And this is why we are getting rid of the deck:


Paul was working on loosening the bolts to a board that runs along the house when he saw something move and he shouted "Mouse!" I thought: Well that would be weird...too weird, actually. So I said "Was it a mouse or a rat?" And Paul said "Mouse - and there's another one!" So I came and took a closer look and said "Babe - those a baby rats. And Ew." (Amanda, I almost called you because I know how much you love mice...how much more would you love a baby rat?? I know I know, I am too kind!) Paul had uncovered the babies nest and there were quite a few of them. We gathered them up and put them in a bucket - and I will spare you the details of how we disposed of them.

See all the junk gathered together? That would be a rats nest. Ten points for whoever can find the baby rat in the picture!

Nine babies total. NINE!! And nine less rats for us to deal with later on!