The Dump Truck

Projects at our house seem to go like this:

Hey, our rock bed is getting all weedy.
Yeah, I've been pulling weeds from it every chance I get.
We should do something about that.
We could spray.
Or we could put down new weed barrier.
That sounds like a lot of work.
Yeah, but we should do the project the right way so we don't have to do it again.
Have you pulled rocks from a rock bed before?
We could do it in a weekend.
...
...
trip to hardware store is made, project gets underway
...
...
Wow, digging up old rocks is hard work.
Maybe we should just replace all this rock.
Yeah, we never liked this rock anyway.
What should we do with all the old rock?
How much does new rock cost?
How much new rock do we need?
How late is Pioneer Sand (and rock) open?
Let's take a break and go pick out some new rock.
Do you think they can deliver this weekend?

So before we know it, our weedy rock bed turns into a massive dig it up, fix the lumpy bumpy muddy mound, re-sculpt it without changing the drainage, haul all the old rock to the other side of the house where the existing rock bed is nearly naked, lay weed cloth, dig out all the grass from the neighbor that has encroached into the rock bed (1' in some places), lay new edging, dig out around the sidewalk and driveway for edging there, and then clean up. There were a couple times we thought, yikes! However, one weekend of massive labor should make for a much easier summer, that bed was a mess of weeds already and it hasn't even rained yet!

Starting the dig. We're only doing up to the house, between our house and Stan's house is another project.

My rock pile is the one on the sidewalk. Travis' is the one on the driveway. F is helping by riding his new red bike (courtesy of our REI dividend - we even made it to REI early Saturday morning). After HOURS of work we didn't seem to be making much progress. Tides turned shortly after this and things got moving. Travis is standing on the grass that encroached into the rock bed from the neighbor. Our lot line is actually behind him. We had to get a pick out to dig up the rocky grass it was so tough.
Getting the little red bike turned out to be awesome, it kept F super busy all weekend. It's a balance bike, one without pedals. That's our new car there on the street, too. Sunday morning, after lots of hard work on Saturday, we were all famished. Strawberry pancake breakfast! F had amazing bedhead which merited documentation. He really really needs a haircut. We did a lot more work on Sunday, so much I didn't take pictures!

Monday morning, bright and early, the dump truck came with our new rock. We're replacing our ugly builder grade rock with some gray cobble. Here's the new prepped bed.And the dump truck! We had a lovely lady dump truck driver. She looked like she could run a marathon, not what you would normally expect for a dump truck driver. And, like all good dump truck drivers, she waved and waved at F when she was done. The grand finale for our Monday morning was the garbage truck which followed right after our dump truck. I'm not sure what we'll do for the rest of the day, I don't really know how to top a dump truck AND a garbage truck all in one morning!