Doing Things the Hard Way

I’m on vacation this week and it seemed like it would be fun to remove some of the grass from our yard. I’ve rented a manual sod “kicker” to cut sod in the past, but was seriously questioning my decision this time around. It’s hard work, and I’m older and fatter now. I could have brought home a noisy, gasoline burning, smoke belching machine from the same place, my inner slacker complained.

It got easier after cutting the initial strip and figuring out that downhill is better. (Just a slight slope, but what a difference.) You also want to attack at a low angle. Keeping the handles lower while you kick seems to cut more smoothly while at the same time putting maximum strain on your lower back, just in case you’re hoping to be incapacitated for a few days. No such luck with a back injury, but still I spent the day yesterday recuperating. For the $17 rental fee, it’s not bad exercise. (We also hauled and spread fresh shredded mulch in most of our previous ill-conceived landscaping areas.)

In the picture you can see where I was about halfway done with the grass cutting part of the project. Along with that there was the wheelbarrow hauling, trailer loading, and dropping off at the dump parts. On the second trip to the yard waste drop-off site, I wished I had brought my camera. It felt surreal with the wind blowing dust across the open spaces and piles of tree limbs, wood chips, black dirt, sod, and various large pieces of machinery both mobile and stationary to process it all.

It may not be obvious from the picture, but this is some pretty nice sod. Our projects always seem to take the good grass from the yard when there are perfectly crummy patches nearby that we wouldn’t miss. But I guess those areas don’t grow much and require less mowing, so I shouldn’t complain.

Today we’ll be putting down “bullet” edger bricks, planting Amur Maples, and filling in the rest with shredded mulch (sometimes called wood chips). Haven’t decided yet if we’ll use landscaping mesh between the dirt and mulch. That stuff is a pain to put down and I’m not sure if it really helps much. Things still grows through and on top of it. But we’ve always used it, so it might feel strange to put the mulch down on the naked ground. It would be like pants without underwear. Or something.

Anyway, lots of fun on tap for the Fourth of July. It’s harder to work these days with a 17-month-old trying to help with everything, but we may have some grandparents over to assist with kid wrangling.

I hope those of you with the day off for the holiday enjoy the day, and for the rest of you, you might as well go ahead and enjoy the day also. Thanks for reading!

Related: Mostly Done!