A Work in Progress

For the first 7 years of my marriage we lived in a second floor condo.  I could not have been more excited to get rid of that condo, I was done with the HOA, and done with sharing walls with neighbors. I couldn't wait to own a house that had no HOA fee, no walls that I could hear my neighbor's alarm clock through, but the biggest excitement for me was to have  a yard. Really there are very few things I enjoy more than being creative in my yard.  When I day dream it is of what else I could do to my yard.

We moved into my house in May. The first week of June is City Clean up in my parent's city, this means that one time a year everyone can make a huge pile of garbage in the street in front of their yard and back hoes and dump trucks come around and collect it all. Memorial day I was going to my mom's house and saw a perfectly good slide in someone's garbage pile. I have no shame, I jumped out of my car and put it in the back.

Later that day I was once again driving in my mom's neighborhood, and someone had cut down a tree, with the intent of putting it out on the curb for the dump trucks to pick up. My sister went and knocked on their door (because I didn't have the nerve) and asked if it was ok if we had their tree trunk. They were thrilled for us to haul it way.

Off my sister and I ran to run a chain saw. Oh we were so excited to chop the tree trunk. Unfortunately my brother in law was equally excited and he took over. OK it wasn't unfortunate, but I didn't get to chop anything.

 We determined the length I wanted each one and chopped them right there to how tall I wanted them.

 I figured I needed my slide to be about 5feet tall,  I wanted  it in the ground by 2 feet.  so it would be stable. so we cut one 7 feet, 6 feet, 5 feet, 4 feet, 3 feet, and then we had one that was about 16 inches that isn't in the ground at all.

 Then came the digging.  the first few holes we dug 2 1/2 feet and filled the bottom six inches with pea gravel for drainage purposes. We put the logs in (those were extremely heavy) and filled the holes back in.

 After getting them in we decided the bark was too rough so we pilled all the bark off. we sealed it with water sealer, to slow the drying process to prevent the wood from cracking.  I love my slide, and my kids do too.

 

Four years later,  I still have done nothing with the dirt around the slide. it is the one part of the back yard I have not touched (more on my back yard will come later).  I have toyed with digging all the dirt up and filling it in with  pea gravel.  My current thought I am toying with is planting steppables (really tough ground cover that can be walked on) in around it to fill in and prevent weeks from growing. When I decided what I am doing I will post it.

 

I think that my love for creative expression in my yard goes back to my divine qualities given me by my Father in Heaven. He too exhibited creative expression in his creating of the world,  the great variety of land formations throughout the world, all given to us  because he loves us. I don't have a world to create, I have no idea how to create mountains, streams, or oceans, arches, volcanoes, or hot springs, but I can add variety in my own yard. The process makes me happy, as does reflecting on the finished product. I also like to look back and see how far we have come. I enjoy the time I spend with my family working on these projects, and find that working side by side with my kids, or my husband strengthen my family relationships.