Sometime in the next month or so, our backyard will be transformed…
Again…
A little more than two years ago, the previous owners of our home left us a nice, quiet, tranquil english-gardeny backyard. There was a two tier fountain, a raised flowerbed, pea-sized gravel everywhere…and stones. Lots and lots of stones. Granted, a year of minimal neglect while the house was on the market and not actively lived in had added a bit of straggledy-ness to the whole set up, but still nice.
Two years later, my lack of experience and time had added a bit more wear and tear on the backyard. With a little bit of effort, it could have been fixed up.
Had we not had a toddler running around the house. There comes a moment in every parents life, however fleeting that moment might be, when otherwise sane adults look out their windows and think to themselves, “Yes, it’s negative 20 degrees outside and the snow is a foot deep and I might have possibly seen a polar bear out there somewhere…but the kids have been inside for three…months.”
Wanting a kid to be outside (presumably in non-lethal weather) puts an onus on parents. We must make sure that any and all choking hazards (pea-sized gravel) are removed and dangerous, unstable elements (large stones) are carefully put away.
So we tore up our garden. We lifted out all the stones, picked up all the junk, broke down the fountain.
And now…now we’re paying someone to finish the job. Sometime in the next month or so, a landscaping company will come in, dig up all the crappy soil, put in better soil, and lay down some sod.
And a month after that, our daughter will finally get kicked out of the damn house.
It’s all about the peace and quiet folks. All about the peace and quiet.
