Project: Backyard Reclamation

We moved into this house five years ago this coming Thanksgiving.  Despite the cold weather and everything being dormant, one of our favorite things about the house was the beautiful backyard.  Being silly first time home owners we appreciated the beauty without appreciating all the work that goes into maintaining it.  Gavin was a tiny baby at the time and before he was done being tiny, I was pregnant again and then had another tiny baby and throughout all those years we have found it challenging just to keep up with the very minimal work of mowing the lawn and raking the leaves.  Meanwhile Nature, as she will, has Taken Over.

This Spring/Summer we've dedicated ourselves to the goal of reclaiming our backyard.  The boys are big enough now to entertain themselves with minimal supervision and everyone is big enough to help in various ways.  We've already completed our tasks in the front yard (which were relatively simple.  It's more visible, which means we've kept up on it more, and the landscaping was simpler to begin with.)  Memorial Day weekend we began battle on the backyard.  Our first major project there is now complete:

(We've added a few more bags of rocks since that "after" shot was taken)

I am so proud of us!  And so excited to tackle the rest of our project!