Garden Boxes + Shantel's Stubbornness

Last summer we started a Garden Box project in the back yard, partially because we wanted more garden space. Partially because the grass on our upper area had been taken over completely with fescue grass and we wanted to tear the whole thing out. It took us all summer, but we got the grass torn out, the dirt leveled, the boxes installed (with drainage system from roof gutter), and rock/gravel placed.  I knew that if I wanted to have them ready to plant a garden in them this summer I needed to order dirt even though we weren't really prepared. 

I called, ordered 5 cubic yards of dirt, and then told David. He was a little surprised because he's really busy with work right now and was a little worried because he wasn't going to have much time to help over the next couple of weeks. (Including one travel-trip where he would be gone.) But I was determined and I worked hard to move load after load of dirt (before we started our homeschool, after we were done with homeschool, while the kids were eating lunch and while the kids were playing outside, ect... Whatever group of minutes that I had, I worked on it. (Note: I listened to the audiobook of Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe, which is a non-fiction book about the start of heavy perscription pain killers and abuse and the family that benefitted from the pain and addiction of people across america. Although it was incredibly long, it was both fascinating and awful.) 

I got started loading dirt into the garden boxes and I realized that if I wanted to add a trellis into my garden boxes, I needed to add it before I put the dirt in. Thus started the second stage of Shantel's stubborness. I called my dad to talk through how I could get a 4'x16' pig-panel home from the local Tractor Supply company to use for my trellis. (I had looked at dozens of trellises online and nothing was both in my price range and what I was looking for. I had determined that this fencing panel would be the best thing.) We talked through how to attach it to the top of my van and even watched several youtube videos about how to bring a fence panel home with a minivan. But it all seemed like a lot of work. When I asked, "But do you think I could fit it in my van - the answer was a hesitant NO. But me, knowing my van as well as I do, I thought it was possible. I convinced David to just TRY (determined that it would fit, out of force of will). We snuck out that very night after bedtime (leaving Lydia in charge) and ran over to Tractor Supply. We spent a good amount of time analyzing the panel, David unbeliving, and me insisting that it would fit. Finally, we asked if we could take one to our car and just try to fit it before purchasing it. A worker helped us unlock the panels and helped carry it over to our car. With an impressive amount of bending, it SLID RIGHT IN. There were less than 2 inches to spare. I was so excited I was hopping up and down with joy! We bought the panel, marco poloed my dad on the way home, and celebrated by letting the kids come and see. It looks like a dog cage or something, but it's my trellis! Yay. This is the thing about me being stubborn. Sometimes it's a problem and the thing that I want just dosn't work out and causes me a significant amount of extra effort and frustration. BUT SOMETIMES, that stubborness pays off and is the only way that situation would have worked out. This is one of those times that my stubbornness paid off! 

Finally the dirt was all in the boxes, and we were ready to plant our garden. We took the kids to the store and let them each pick something to plant. We ended up with pumpkins (Lydia), carrots (Austin), Honeydew (Caleb), Watermelon (Lucy), plus tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, strawberries, and blueberries. A real garden this year! I am so so happy about it.  

(Look at that tiny pile of dirt. I was SO happy when I moved the very last load of dirt!) 

Early Anniversary Celebration Weekend and Puzzling Adventures

Last weekend we took Jenna and Kevin's kids for the weekend so they could have a big date weekend before baby #3 was born. Then this weekend they took Lydia and Austin (and Caleb during the day) so Shantel and I could do a date weekend. (Insert from Shantel, which will happen occasionally through this post, I felt a little guilty leaving my kids with Jenna right before her baby was born but these were the only weekends that ended up working for the two of us.) It was so much fun! We basically used this as an early Anniversary Celebration. Here is a recap. (yay!)

We have been desperately wanting another tree in our backyard for a couple of reasons. First, the sun is just killer and we need more shade. The tree we planted when we first moved in has grown...not at all. As in it is the same size as when we planted it. We are going to work on giving it more water, but we also need another tree to help. In addition, we had a tree growing behind our fence, but unfortunately it was growing too close to the fence and we cut it down. (This was pretty traumatic for me. I loved that tree. I so wish that it had just been a foot further away and we would have left it! It grew so tall and shaded the backyard so well and we didn't have to do anything for it. I looked and looked for a tree exactly like it, but I didn't know what kind of tree it was and my descriptions were fairly lacking. After knowing how great the shade would be with a tree down at the bottom I was determined to get a tree planted this summer.) So we really wanted to buy a tree. You might ask, why would you waste tree shopping on a date weekend? Our kids are the best and they are awesome going to stores and doing just about anything we ask, except going to a nursery. Any time we try to pick out plants for anything it is a huge struggle. If we are going to spend $300 on a new tree, we needed both of us fully engaged. 

Our plan was to find a big tree for the very back corner of the yard. 

We went to Cooks Nursery in Orem and found a Autumn Blaze Maple Tree that we are hoping will be perfect. It is fast growing. The picture here is not actually for our tree, because we ended up paying $300 so we could get a bigger tree (and this is not the maple). But you get the idea, we were tree shopping.

After we picked up a tree we went to drop off Caleb for the rest of the day. So we saw the kids for a couple of minutes at the park.

Then we went downtown to do our "Puzzling Adventure." One of our 12 dates for the year was a puzzling adventure. You are asked various questions and you have to race around answering questions and looking at a bunch of things. One of the biggest surprises of the whole day is that Shantel does not remember ever being at the capital. (Shantel: David means, that I told him that I've never been to the capital building before and he is so surprised he thinks that means I just don't remember... but I really don't think I've ever actually been to the capital before. But for a first trip, this was the best!) So I am so glad our tour started there. We ran all around the capital answering questions and then it took us down to Temple Square and then up to Memory Grove Park. It was so much fun! Honestly, it was the perfect day to spend together. We raced as much as we could and when we had chances to take breaks, we just enjoyed talking and laughing together. Here are the pictures that we took (you actually took them in the app as part of the activity).

(I think this is like the tree that we had to cut down in our yard. I told you I was on the lookout for it. Too bad we had already bought our tree at this point. Here's sending lots of love to that Autumn Blaze Maple and hoping that it grows really well!) 

(I really liked this big tree. Apparently I had trees on my mind. Also, I really liked the dedication on this plaque next to a little bridge "Living to serve them she build bridges of unity with charm and honor, over moving waters." May I also live to build bridges in my life with charm and honor.) 

When we finished it pulled up the rankings and we finished #5! That is pretty awesome. We took a picture to prove that 5th is pretty good because it showed the top 100, so a lot of people have done this and we rocked it. (We are pretty awesome.) 

After the puzzling adventure...well at first we just sat and the grass by the Capital because we were tired! We did a lot of walking and running. (This may have been my favorite part of the day because we were able to just sit and talk about some deeper things in our family and our relationship and our lives. It ended up being the perfect place to talk about the things that mattered to us. I feel really excited and happy about the place that we are and the direction we have for our little family and these few minutes were very precious to me.) 

Then we decided on dinner, we were debating doing something really fancy (and expensive) or something less expensive. I am particularly bad at this because the thought of spending $100 on dinner is just too much. So I always lean to something less expensive because I feel like I'll enjoy the food nearly as much and pay way less. We had on our list to try Ruth's diner which is just up Emigration Canyon. We ended up going there and really loved it. We sat outside under these beautiful trees and both really like our meals. It turned out to be the perfect thing for the weekend. (This is quite possibly the best dining experience of the year and possibly of our entire marriage. It was just so perfect for the day. So beautiful and just so great.)

Right next to the restaurant was some commercial space that was for sale. It had a beautiful deck with some tress and a little stream nearby and we took our camp chairs up to it and just sat and read books for a little while. It was so pleasant. The funny thing (picture below) is that as we looked at the space and thought, this would be the perfect reception center! We were all in on calling to see how much and get an agent to take us through and start a reception center business...then we looked and parking and it just would not work. There were not enough spots for the restaurant and reception center and there is no place to put more parking. So our dreams ended after about 15 minutes...alas. (It's sad that we got a picture of the for sale sign but not of the actual deck area. It was just so quaint and peaceful. I'm usually a strict rule-follwer and wouldn't even think about doing anything that looked like trespassing. But the deck was open to the parking lot, but once you climbed the stairs you were tucked into this little tree and stream filled space. I figured it was fairly public property. And also, to David's point, the lack of parking is probably why it isn't doing well - but it just cries out wanting to be a reception center!)  

That night we picked up Caleb and then went home to spend the evening together. We picked the kids up on Sunday in Morgan. Shantel, I love you so much and can't imagine having more fun and more happiness than being with you all weekend. I loved laughing and joking and talking. Happy Anniversary, I love you!

(I am truly the one who is so so blessed. David is the perfect fit for me. He brings such light and peace to my life and I can't imagine doing this adulting/parenting/life thing without him. Nine years together, and it's just getting better. I love you David. Thank you for being mine.)

Yard Progression: Front/side yard.

We've been putting in some work on our front yard and we are excited about the way things have turned out. It doesn't look like we've done much, and I'm a little embarrassed to admit just how long it has taken us (like weeks and weeks of a few hours here and there). This past Saturday we finally buckled down and spent all day just.finishing.the.thing. But we are super pleased with the results! 

Please ignore the dying plant on the left. It was big and beautiful, but I didn't realize that I needed to water it every single day and it is suffering. I'm trying to nurse it back to health. Instead focus on the pretty new cushions (from Target on super clearance), our little moss-friends finally filling in between our flagstones, and the brown mulch that made more of a difference than I even expected! 

 

The biggest part of the project was the side of our house. I don't have any before pictures, mostly because it was a mess of grass and dirt and rocks and weeds the size of Texas with great big prickles on them. It took us weeks to tear up the grass, move the rocks. weed the area, level the dirt, and just clean things up. Also, note our new, slightly crooked, fence. Yeah. We finished fencing off our backyard, which was a hit of $3,000. Not kidding. Just one side of the yard and two gates. Excuse me while I go cry for a minute. 

 Our neighbors had some extra pavers from a project and said we could have them. We decided to build some steps down from the driveway to the path. We used gravel and paver sand to get them exactly the way we wanted them, then decided to change it - so we had to basically start all over. This easily was the longest part of the project. Measuring, making sure each step was perfectly level/slanting away from the house, pulling the rocks back out and adding more sand, etc... We finished it off with some sand that turns into concrete to secure everything and it actually looks awesome! Go us. David keeps saying things about how we are pros now and could totally do this again. I keep thinking about how I never want to see another paver again. 

We kept jumping around about what we wanted to do with the side area. We knew we didn't want any plants/grass. (We put down weed paper and plan to keep spraying it with weed kill to keep the weeds at bay.) We initially wanted to just fill it with gravel and put in flagstone stepping stones back to the garage man door. But we are keeping our garbage can behind the fence gate and we started worrying about pulling it out over the gravel. We jumped around on a bunch of different options, but finally decided that we were going to do the flagstone path with some nice mulch in between. Then we were at Home Depot buying the rest of the supplies for our paver steps and we saw these pretty little rock path steps. They come with nine rocks together and sit snugly so it's pretty easy to create a path. We bought 12 of them to bring home to see if they would work and we fell in love with them. They solve the "pulling the garbage can" problem and they look really great! We'd already put down the weed paper along with a layer of topsoil. This whole path only took a couple of hours to put together, then cover with this fine mulch. After the steps taking way longer than planned, the easiness of the path was very welcome! 

 We still have a bunch of projects to work on in our yard, but I feel so relieved with the things that we've done so far. I finally feel like we aren't the sore thumb of the neighborhood. We certainly aren't the best - but our yard looks pretty darn nice, if I do say so myself. 

Yard Progression: Retaining Rock Wall

Next up in our Home Progression series: The yard! 

We've had some big things going on in our backyard over the past couple of weeks and we couldn't be more excited! As you may remember, our backyard has quite a steep slope from the house to the fence. In fact, the first time that we came and looked at this lot we immediately dismissed it as a "definitely no", which resulted in us almost building the same house in the Herriman Town Center (what were we thinking?). 

After our offer was turned down  we narrowly escaped, we came back to look at the lot again because we knew that this was the area that we ideally wanted to be in. (Again, what were we thinking - trying to live in Herriman? We seriously got sucked into the Herriman Town Center hype.) By the time we came back to look at it a second time, our neighbors yard had been tiered and we could picture what our yard would look like if we separated it into two tiers. We had completely fallen in love with the Cameron floor plan, so that brief vision was enough to decide to move forward with the house. (After spending hours and hours in the Herriman office/model home, I just walked into the office here in the Thanksgiving Meadows and told them that I wanted to put money down to hold the lot. They were so surprised! It's not often that someone walking in off the street with a small baby asks two questions and then puts money down to buy a house without ever really talking to you before.)

Ahem, I digress. So our yard: 

You can see how steep it is. It makes it look super small (I mean, it is a small yard but the slope makes most of the space unusable.) So, we knew what we had to do. After contacting 4-5 different landscaping companies for bids, we found Trotter Landscape and hired them to come an do our yard for us. First up, the retaining rock wall. They started by building a 2 foot wall at the end of our yard by the fence. This raised the yard by a good 2 feet, and made the upper wall shorter than it would have had to be otherwise. 

Lydia was in seventh heaven watching the big tractor guy out the window. We spent practially the whole day watching them work. It was amazing to see how skilled the man working the backhoe was. He could pick up the rocks and make them do exactly what he wanted them to do by pushing down on a corner and rotating them into place. It was amazing to watch. Our neighbors were kind enough to allow the machinery to come through their backyard (because the space between the houses is too small), but all day I was praying that the tractors would be very careful around their firepit. It's a beautiful and fun area that our neighbors built themselves and I was holding my breath everytime that anyone came near it. 

After they finished the lower wall, they filled and flattened out the lower level, then got started working on the upper wall. Again, it was incredible to see the skill of the guy who was placing the rock. It made me so grateful that we hired the job out and we didn't attempt to do it ourselves (we had talked about it). We never would have been able to do it. Never. 

Like I said, we spent most of the day looking out the window. Lydia was loving it. The lower wall is just one rock deep. The upper wall is three rocks deep. So the guy would lay the rocks down, back fill them with dirt, and then lay the next row.

I was absolutely amazed at how quickly they were finished. They arrived at around 8 a.m. and took about an hour to get unloaded and organized. They were long gone by 1 p.m. They were very quick, efficient, and did a fantastic job! Here are the after pictures: 

Just building the retaining wall seriously increased the usable space in our yard by 95%. It looks huge! (Well, as huge as such a small lot can look.) We are in love with it. Already we can picture fun family dinners at our picnic table on the patio while kids are running around in the lower area. It's going to be perfect. The upper level is just big enough for a couple of blankets on the grass, and the lower level is plenty of space to throw a football, play tag, run through sprinklers or pretty much anything else that our kids can come up with. The grass will slope on either side of the wall, so you can get down on either side. It already looks fantastic, but we can't wait to get grass in so that we can really get outside and enjoy it.