backyard project

this post was supposed to happen a few days ago, but then our internet decided to stop working

jeff had 6 days until his orientation for residency started at the end of june. and most of those 6 days were spent outside fixing up our backyard since we knew there would be no time to get it done after jeff had started. jeff's parents made the move with us and helped us get it done while they were here. it probably wouldn't have happened without them and would've been really hard. they also helped us unpack and get a little organized right at first, too. it was so nice to have the help - thank you!

before:

that's my mother in law measuring off the dimensions by steps. :)

and here we are getting started... totally oblivious to how bad this arkansas summer humidity really is. are neighbors told us later that they thought we were crazy to be working out there in the middle of the day. yeah. we learned quickly. we seriously couldn't be out there for more than 20 minutes before we were dying and our clothes were soaked through. so gross. i was happy to have a baby to nurse and take care of as an excuse to come in for a break. :)

yeah, it kind of took forever to fill that whole area.

did i mention our backyard is a forest? with lots of critters. we've seen all kinds of things back there. bunnies :), lizards, blue lizards or some kind of salamander (?), squirrels, all kinds of different birds (finches maybe?). oh yeah and just yesterday the technician in my backyard said he saw about five different snakes. FIVE. ya know, i'm not extremely terrified of snakes, but i don't exactly like them...! and FIVE? he said it seemed like they were breeding or something. awesome. and since we're talking critters here, i'll just mention arkansas has just about everything. here's a few other things we've seen (not in our backyard) to add to the list: deer - just down the street, and (dead) armadillos...! several of them. weird animals. i didn't really think they existed, but they do!

jeff replenishing.

here's all of the leaves/dead grass bagged up that we had to rake up before getting started... so much!

after:

all but the very back of the yard got covered with bark. hopefully someday soon we can finish the entire thing...

and just because these pictures are cute and were in the same folder:
this was in arizona, days before we moved. :) she's almost 3 months here.