Another yard update

I know you've all been dying to know the status of our backyard landscaping efforts.

Thanks to the young men of the Colorado Springs 9th Ward, our yard status has improved remarkably since Saturday. In one evening they completely transformed the corner of the yard that will house the play structure! We are so grateful. Rewarding the boys with ice cream sandwiches and soda didn't seem quite adequate.

On Tuesday night we expected 4-6 young men and a leader or two, but instead at least a dozen young men and 3 or 4 leaders showed up! They worked so hard and so fast - we were amazed! They loaded trash, cut and removed sod, and leveled an 1150-square-foot area in an hour and a half. Their efforts would have taken Garry and I weeks of evening labor. We figure they collectively put in 25 man-hours on Tuesday alone.

We rented this ginormous trash bin that holds 12 cubic feet of debris. As you can see, it is overflowing with super-heavy railroad ties, rebar, playhouse remains, cinderblocks, sod, and dirt.

This is THE PLACE, all leveled and ready to go. The boxes at the edge of the dirt contain 1,000 pounds of lumber for the play set. Yesterday I ordered 20 tons of pea gravel to go underneath the assembled structure. Yep, you read that correctly: 20 tons! It comes on Saturday. I promise to post a picture of the pile.