Backyard project, at a standstill

I’m finding it really hard to believe right now that the summer is over. It can’t be Labour Day weekend already, wasn’t it just Canada Day camping weekend?

But it is, and although there’s so much we have done this summer, despite the fact that the days are the longest of the year, there never seems to be enough days to do everything you want to do in these two short months.

We did go camping – twice – spend a week at a cottage, play in a baseball tournament (two if you count the fact that our tournament ate up one weekend and Ryan’s men’s league tournament ate up another) and made a quick, beeline trip to Montreal (by car, without Austin) for a wedding last weekend. And next weekend, we're making a quick, beeline trip to Fredericton (by plane and with Austin this time) for another wedding. No wonder there never seemed to be enough days, we were away or busy more weekends than not this summer.

But what didn’t we do? Well the backyard project is still in the Part II phase, having not been touched since we rushed to finish the patio in time for a BBQ party at the end of May. We’ve been too busy enjoying our summer to work in the backyard, which is fine, but the lack of work being done may have set us back to Part 1.5. You see, the large area of dirt left behind by the old cedar hedges, and never covered in sod, have sprouted a couple of weeds. Well, actually, there are enough weeds covering the area that it almost looks like I planted ground cover! At least the weeds are green, which is better than I can say for the lawn.

The old patio stones are still there – but the grass growing up between the stones is so thick that if you stand at a distance, you can almost imagine that the stones are gone.

Needless to say, I don’t have any pictures, because it’s not a pretty sight.

But the new patio is great, and we did use it and our new patio furniture several times over the summer. Some weekday evenings it was really nice to sit outside and eat dinner while Austin ran around in the backyard. I mean what kid wouldn’t like playing in piles of dirt!

Hopefully this fall we’ll get back on track. A few days off work with Austin at the sitter’s is all we need to get it finished. Lift the old stones, rototill the entire backyard – the sad, old grass and all – spread some dirt and lay some sod. Then, next spring, we can buy a sandbox, other toys and maybe some flowers and we’ll have a nice little oasis right outside our back door.

That is, as long as I remember to turn on the sprinkler every now and then.