Instant Grass

So since we moved into our house there has been a constant debate about where to put our money first, the basement, the second bathroom, a fence, landscaping, grass, blinds, etc. All of which is can be traced back to:

Lesson #1-building/buying a new house is fun and has lots of benefits, however, it often does not come with many of the things you take for granted when you buy a used house and therefore, may COST A LOT MORE MONEY :)

Having learned that lesson, we bought blinds first (the neighbors got tired of the strip show from our "naked" windows each morning and evening).  We then learned that our neighborhood required that your front yard be done within the first year of your homes completion.  This led to a whole new debate: seed, hydroseed, sod. . . I originally voted seed (leave it to me to choose the "cheap" option) while Kel was still undecided. As the rain continued to fall in torents our decision fell further and further into the back of our minds until we came home one day and our neighbors had an entire front yard, green and lush, and were presently laying the back yard. We went over to join the party and within a couple of hours they had a beautiful emerald lawn which made me somewhat green with envy.  I cannot tell you how much mud and dirt I have mopped up, swept, vaccuumed, sludged through, carried in to work on the soles of my shoes, and been up to my ears in since moving into this house, of course I was jealous. 

So of course, I wanted "instant grass" too.  One of our hitches was that our builder refused to grate our lot which by this time looked like it had been used by high school boys to see how dirty they could make thier trucks, I don't think there was one flat section on the whole lot!

A few weeks earlier, Kel had had 5 loads of fill dirt delivered (in five gigantic piles) to our house and those too needed to be moved.  We had tried to find a tractor that we could borrow and finally on Friday night, Kel broke down and rented a little Kaboda (which he later affectionately names "P.O.S.").  Since we are cheap, Kel found out that if he rented the tractor from 5pm to 8am, over one night, we would save over a hundred dollars so the race was on. 

Mom and Dad Griggs and I went to pick up the tractor while Kel finished up at work.  It just so happens that someone had cut one of the major fiber optic lines in Logan that day and nearly all cell phone and network service was down. This contributed to my near infuriation while trying to get details from Kel about the rental. I would dial and hear "hello, wha . . " (dead air) then my phone would ring and I would answer and hear "hey. . . " dead air.  This continued through numerous dialings and I'm not sure why but it made me so mad that steam was rising out of my head.  Mom tried to distract me by talking about how cute tuff had been earlier that day to calm me down with no success; however, I like to think that my anger was what kept me fueled through next 24 hours. 

We finally got the tractor and headed home in time to meet Kel.  He imediately pulled the tractor off the trailer and began trying to grate the lot (it was at this point the the Kabota got it's lovely nickname) and I think we all felt a few pangs of hopelessness.  The tractor was so gutless that it could barely move much less drag dirt; however, with a lot of finesse and know how, Kel began making progress.  The rain had created a thin layer of what could have passed for concrete over each pile and P.O.S. couldn't break through so I began manually breaking up the outer layer of each pile with a shovel while Kel grated.   Due to our limited amount of time and resources, Kel decided that we would not have time to use the fill dirt and that it would just have to be moved out of the way. At around 10pm, Dad realized that the tractor did not have any hydraulic fluid and was no longer working correctly so the boys had to go on a search for the fluid which was not cheap. The grating, hauling, and raking process continued until nealy 2am and began again at 6am.
WHen Kel headed back out at 6am saturday morning, I was already exhausted from the night of raking and shoveling and it took everything in me to pry myself out of bed.  Mom was already out raking with Kel back on the tractor and Dad on his way out as I pulled my shoes on.  We continued to rake and haul and level until 9am when Dad took the tractor back and the sod arrived. This is the point where I began to learn lesson #2.  My back ached, I had blisters on my hands, and my muscles throbbed, and now here sat 17 pallets of grass.  My attitude remained good when I saw Dad lay the first few pieces of grass "hoorraayy. . instant grass" I thought.  Mom and I continued to shovel, while Dad and Kel worked on laying the front section of grass.  It just so happened, that it was Nibley Heritage Days and when the parade ended, several of the floats passed our house, one of which threw us an entire bag of salt water taffy and several people shouted encouraging words our direction.  At one point, I was jumping from the road up onto the shovel that was placed above the curb on solid dirt when my frayed pants caught on the edge of the shovel securing my foot to the shovel and causing me to fall backwards like an awkward pole vaulter onto my side and back in the street (not my most graceful moment).

By 10am Mom, Dad, Kel, and I were operating at full steam and the front yard was actually begining to look like a yard. By noon however, our steam was running out and we were moving slower and slower (lesson #2 was now very clear).  The man who delivered our sod had place the pallets in such a way that no matter how we layed the grass, we were constantly running into a semi full pallet and trying to work around it until it was empty only to be in the same situation with the next pallet.  As the hours drug on, I began to worry about Dad, and about whether us finishing by the end of the day was even a realistic expectation.  I was determined and driven (partially by the thought of how much we had paid for these piles of grass) to finish and when everyone took a break I kept moving. I was covered from head to toe in dirt which now was streaked by the gallons of sweat that were pouring from my body and my muscles seemed to scream relief.  Our saving grace occured when a friend who was working on a house next door showed up with his tractor and began moving the remaining pallets out of the way and then began helping us put down the last few pallets of grass.  He brought new energy back to the four of us and by 5pm we were close enough to being done that we called it quits. (This is when Lesson #2 became a gospel truth)

Lesson #2: Sod is not "instant grass" and anyone who says different is a liar.

We all could barely move for the next two day and the finishing touches had to be done Monday, but it is wonderful to look out at a sea of green and to no longer have gobs of mud clinging to my shoes everytime I walk outside.

My (first) very own Garage Door! I love it!