We got ROCKS!

We got ROCKS!  YEAH!!

Yes, who knew that having an abundance of rocks would make me so happy?

Typically, when you are doing yard work, rocks are your enemy.  They're in the soil, every time you try to dig you hit one, they are just a major nuisance.  So when I found myself daydreaming about 1 1/2 tons of rocks, it felt a little odd.

But the outcome is SO great.

We quickly realized that down in the George, "xero-scaping" (rocks/gravel landscaping) is not only easier to maintain, but quite practical with the desert heat and water being expensive.  So, we got to work on our first yard project.  I decided that with our new sandbox (if you remember mention of that) I wanted to have that section of our yard more usable.  It is the part of the yard that you walk out of the house and are looking directly at, so it was always an eyesore looking out my sliding door at this.   It needed to be fixed.

Let me take you on a trip down memory lane, to see what it used to be:

 So I got to work prepping the soil, digging up the weeds and trying to smooth it out a little.  In this picture you can see the part above the sandbox where I was done, and the part towards the bottom that I still needed to do.

We then went to the garden store/rock yard and chose the gravel to be delivered.  They delivered it in huge bags, and Addison got right to work throwing one rock on the dirt at a time.  She was excited to have her rocks too!

Here we are, getting going for real. 

(You'll notice at the top of the picture the hop scotch court - or whatever you'd call it - that I made out of pavers)

The girls got their buckets and shovels for the sandbox, and took a bucket full at a time to help.

 Do you love Addison's yard work apparel?

 Dave and Emily and their girls came over to help (I bribed them with ice cream cones) and we got it done really quick.  We are LOVING the finished product!

(The random set of six pavers on the right is where we want to plant a tree in the spring.  We just did that to save it's spot.)

The kids already spend much more time out there without all the weeds and prickers getting in their way.  We'll have to move around the yard section by section slowly, it's a big job.  But we're excited to get going on it!