Sod!

 We spent a fun Saturday evening with Sjani and Ryan's family.  Sjani and I watched the kids while Dave and Ryan spread a dump truck-load of compost evenly all over the dirt in the yard.  And then we were ready for the final stage of landscaping...SOD!!

I love sod.  I love the instant gratification of seeing beautiful green being unrolled and changing the whole look of the house.  I also love that laying sod isn't too hard.  It was the one stage of landscaping that I was able to jump in and help with the whole time.  

Dave left work early on Friday and got home just in time to see the sod delivered.  The sod guy was super friendly.  He was in the middle of telling a story when he said, "No way!  You're LDS? I'm LDS too!"  I was confused by how he knew until I realized I was wearing an old BYU t-shirt.  Then we had an even better conversation while he gave us a few tips and got the sod unloaded.  Dave got to work while I picked the kiddos up from the bus and then we just worked away.  Our good neighbor Dan came and helped for awhile, which made a huge difference.  We also had to take a break to attend the kids' end-of-year outdoor concert, grabbed some pizza from Dominoes (thank goodness they have a pizza place in our little town...) and then we were finishing up.  The final result is beautiful!

The first little bit of green...

It did seem like the pallets of sod were never-ending.

Beautiful, glorious, green sod

All the way around, with the sprinklers going.  A job well done!

And we determined to take a break from anything yard-related at this point.  Time to focus elsewhere.

Dave is amazing.  He did 90% of this yard from start to finish all on his own.  He has great plumbing skills, as evidenced by the fact that the sprinklers work.  He just kept going late into the night, even when he'd already spent 12 hours at work and 2 hours commuting earlier in the day. There were several nights when he would be out working until midnight, sometimes with me holding a flashlight while he soldered pipes together.  I think the neighbors all thought he was crazy, and he definitely gained a reputation as a hard worker.  Simply put, he is amazing!