Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Getting topsoil the farmer's way

So we have been digging and digging up our backyard. We have a lot of water issues surrounding this house. Literally surrounding us. We live next to a wetland. One of the things I love about our backyard, has turned into a nightmare when dealing with money/septic/basement/water issues. We inherited 3 separate places that water exits the house so we are working on finding them and putting in proper piping and gravel to disperse the water (away from the house). In order to get our backyard looking a little better we thought we should get some topsoil and spread it around the trenches we dug and where the stumps had been dug out. Last year we tried to fill in the holes with plain fill but it was full of garbage and rocks. We aren't asking for a level lawn, just some grass for the kids to play on. I found out that a one ton load of topsoil was $300! When I told my dad he said that he had some topsoil in a pile way out in a field from previous working in the area and had stockpiled it there for 'later'. Now is later, so off we go. We forgot that we have had a lot of rain in the past few day and no sooner did we get the wagon full and the tractor bucket full, than we realized we were stuck in the mud. My dad suggest that I get in the smaller tractor pulling the wagon and he will use the loader tractor to PUSH me. Yikes. That is what I said, because although my dad is a great farmer and business man, this did not seem like a good idea. Well it worked until I couldn't keep the tractor straight (three times). The force of the mud and pushing was making me jackknife the wagon. I could see it ending badly. We of course had forgotten a chain so my dad then suggests that he push the front end of the tractor from the side to straighten it. This also worked and I was so glad to have Drake in the tractor with me as I just sat there looking at him, both of us cringing. Eventually, we got out of the field, my dad and I exchanged 'looks' and then went to my house to dump the topsoil. Now we can have a lawn!! Not only is he a good Opa, he is a good farmer too.


Chickens loving the open holes and worms

Eli climbing on our deck that Michael just go reattached to our house, now we need some railings!!

Maetia had her first sleepover, including cheese crackers and a movie

Maetia and Janna love each other so much they wanted to sleep in the same bed. This lasted a few hours until I had to take Maetia out because she was as she put it "squamshed".

2 comments:

Chloe @ A Creative Call said...

Yay for yards. We don't have much of one but there is lots of other land around us to explore. I love seeing those chickens.

sdouma said...

Cute! I might add "squamshed" to my list of fun words. My students laugh at me on a regular basis for my "vocabulary".