the girl with the panda tattoo: 100th post hooplah!!!

In honor of my 100th post I thought I would begin a series of posts it with a bunch of big things going on in our lives. I will be writing these over a couple of weeks to show some progress at our house and events that will be taking place.

**Sunday, June 6th, 2010.
On July 22nd it will be our 2 year anniversary in our house! We have done lots of painting, decorating, re-arranging, making over the laundry room... But nothing major. Our #1 thing to fix around the house is the backyard. It is a HUGE dirt lot that has been time-consuming and is just looming over our heads as a mega-task that we didn't want to deal with. I (and Matt) tackled the spider-housed bushes 2 years ago, roots and all. We planted a lovely garden, last year, with wildflowers that will bloom every year. This year, SOD!!! Tony has been working non-stop the last few days with the dirt and the tilling and the heat. He is so amazing. Here I am just sitting in different cities doing nothing (well, shopping and eating) and he is being wonderfully productive! My turn begins Monday-Wednesday.

**Monday, June 7th - Wednesday, June 9th, 2010.
By the time the sun came up Monday morning I was finally able to see all the hard work that Tony put into the yard... Partially tilled yard, a new garden with mulch and border, cleaned out side yard to discover yet another pathway.

So this week the job was tilling the entire yard, planting trees, planting a couple of other plants, and finishing off the new little gardens. We tilled our butts off. It is such hard work. The damn machine wants to go to the soft tilled earth instead of the hard pressed dirt, so it's constantly falling to the side. We planted our very first tree in the backyard, a smoke tree. They have a different look every season and it "produces pinkish, airy flower clusters in early summer that appear like puffs of smoke." I can't wait to see it in full smokey bloom next year! We also had to rake the yard to get it fairly smooth and level for the upcoming sod.

**Friday, June 11th - Monday, June 14th, 2010.
RAIN! We never get days and days of rain. It is so rare here in Denver. But it is also just a few days early since we hadn't put the sod down yet. Poop. It made the temperature quite nice though.

**Tuesday, June 15th, 2010.
SOD. SOD. SOD! The day has finally come! We drove to Brighton, CO to a sod farm (I don't know what they're really called) to get our sod. We decided on 2 pallets, knowing it wouldn't be quite enough for our enormous yard. Tony's dad brought his truck and 2 other friends with 2 more trucks. We bought 2 pallets, but actually ended up with over 2.5. It's always good to know people to give you a little extra. We also got it for a steal (under $300!!) With the 5 of us working we had all the sod laid in about 3 hours. I still can't believe that we actually have a wonderfully green backyard.

**Wednesday, June 16th, 2010.
So now that the sod is in and the backyard looks swell, we decided to put in a sprinkler system. Apparently backwards backyard is out motto. So right this second a dude is digging, laying, and doing all that is needed for a sprinkler system!! He has to dig all the way to the front yard to hook it up with that system and there were about 5 flower fatalities in the process :( But it will be worth it.

Now for some before and after pics of the yard...