The Great Lawn Installation Project of 2007 - Day 1

Here it is - the morning of the great project, and our lawn's looking like a Bobcat implements showroom. From left to right you can see the tiller attachment, the trencher, and the bucket (which automatically comes with the rental of the Bobcat). Near the sidewalk is my Vermont Gardenway Cart that my parents got me as a housewarming gift - this thing came in REAL handy for moving rocks, topsoil, mulch and more when the Bobcat would've been overkill or was already in use.


Here's Brett starting work on the front flowerbed contained between the sidewalk, house and driveway. Looks like he'd already raked all the rocks, weeds and other stuff from the clay-soil and was working in some topsoil.


Here's Blake shooting across the back yard with the soil conditioner attachment. This attachment had lots of "teeth" (maybe 3 inches long) on a cylinder, which spun around and chewed up the hard packed dirt and spat rocks out. It didn't go very deep, so was really only good for surface-level work, but still did a great job of softening things up!


Here's Blake scooping poop. Literally. My compost pile was in the way of the lawn renovation project - rather than me scoop it manually and tuck it off to the side, we used the bucket scoop to just move it off to the back corner of the property, where it still sits. Once I have a chance to build compost bins, it'll get dumped into something that contains it better. Right now it's a combination of composted horse manure from Sunbeau Valley Horse Farm, our kitchen scraps, grass clippings from Anita at work, and whatever paper products I feel are safe to shred and add to the mix. Paper disappears FAST in the compost - it's great!


Here's another shot of Blake moving the compost pile - from a distance. This is after the backyard has had it's first pass or two of the conditioner. Take note of the orange lines I painted that morning - they're VERY VERY IMPORTANT! They run from the back corner of the house almost all the way down to the pond...


Sometimes there was a risk of "too many cooks in the kitchen" - I'm sure Marty and I were giving Blake suggestions on how to use the Bobcat. OR I was just trying to talk him into letting me have a turn! ;-)


Look how smooth and fluffy that clay looks!


One of Linda's very important jobs was to supervise the cable - to make sure we didn't tear up the Time Warner cables in the side yard. We had no idea how deep they were buried. Granted, this task wasn't assigned to her - she just took it on herself! ;-)


My turn! Here I'm scooping up all the raked up rocks and weeds. We had to be careful not to scoop up too much of the salvageable soil in the process. Sure, it was heavy with clay, but we still needed something to work with!


Looks like Blake and I are having a race here. The Pietrasz's brought their rider mower and a friend's little trailer to help move/carry stuff around. Came in REAL handy!


I'm looking pretty fierce in the Bobcat here!