A Garden of Rocks

Because the warm weather is continuing to hold up here in Northern Wisconsin, and because work seems to be really slow for my dear husband, we spent yet another day doing yardwork. We have discovered that someone at sometime thought it would be fun to plant rocks everywhere. We have rocks alongside the shed; we have rocks behind the shed; we have rocks alongside the house. Need I say more?

In addition to the rocks, we seem to have a plethora of black plastic garbage bag-like material underneath all the rocks. Unfortunately, it has been there so long that a layer of dirt and its subsequent plants have grown over the black plastic displacing the rocks and embedding the roots. Thankfully, we have a really large pit (see our post on the outhouse) that we are filling with...you guessed it...rocks! No, we are not planning on having a rock garden. We just decided that we would fill about five feet of the pit and leave the rest for something else, like a sandbox for the little ones.

The work doesn't stop there! We still have to remove the silver maple in the back yard; the cedars that frame two sides of the yard; locate the original well on the property; clean out underneath the porch and deck; and prepare for a really big garden. I am so thankful that Spring came really early this year as it is allowing us the extra time we can really use to kick this yard into shape. I have to confess though, that there are times that I wish our yard were not so big and other times that I am really grateful that my husband did not convince me to buy a place in the country (opposed to our charming, small town) which would obviously have included even more work.

DJ and Zoya have been such a "help" too. DJ allows us to "borrow" his motorized jeep to "drive" our bins of rocks from wherever we are cleaning them up to the old outhouse site. He and his sister also take turns holding one shovel like a dustpan so that Momma can scrape more rocks into it to fill the bins. In between other "helps", they fill empty creamer containers with rocks, earning $1 for each full bucket. See, we are not into slave labor! DJ has so far earned $5 and Zoya earned $15. Unfortunately for Zoya, she is in "debt" to Momma and Daddy for breaking a curtain rod yesterday. (She told me that she was really very sorry for making me so sad - who can stay mad for too long with that sincere of an apology?)

Anyway, we all worked so hard and well together that Daddy decided we deserved an extra special treat and took us out for dinner and dessert at Cruise Inn - a local summer only burger joint and ice cream stand. Boy, did it taste so good...especially since I did not have to cook or clean! I am actually praying for rain tomorrow so that we can get a rest from the yardwork.