Work, work, work

I really don't know why my parents keep coming to visit us 'cause every time they come we put them to work...oh wait, we have Nathaniel, that's why they come visit. :) On their last trip, I had a huge list for Dad to do and he managed to finish it all, so this time I had to come up with a new list. This trip included working on the backyard and building some raised garden beds. Jeff lucked out because his Spring Break was over before the good weather got here. That left Dad, Mom, Nate and I to do the hard labor during the day...thanks babe for paying for, supporting, and helping out on all of my wild projects!! We rented a truck (since it is hard to haul anything besides a stroller in a Mazda Protege) and a rota-tiller, then got to work. Dad rota-tilled the a large section of the yard while I shoveled the compost we picked up at the city landscaping facility. Then I headed to Lowes (in a Home Depot truck) and picked up the 4 X 4's for my gardens. We managed to get the bed built before picking Jeff up from work, but he did the heavy hauling of dirt to the beds. On Tuesday, we got the bright idea to use an old box spring we were going to get rid of to level out our rota-tilled ground. I found that having a "little" extra weight on board (i.e. Nathaniel) helped to level the ground quicker. We got the grass seed out so now we just have the keep the birds away and wait to see if we get some real grass to grow (as opposed to the weeds we had before.)

This spring I have discovered Nate's love for being outdoors. He loves to go running with me and had come to expect at least a walk everyday. Having Grandma here to watch him while I worked helped him stay out of trouble while wandering around outside. I found out that he is a good little worker. Anything I was doing, he wanted to do. This included hammering, sawing, digging, sweeping, pulling weeds, and tilling. At one point I was digging with the shovel and he came over to help...of course I didn't know what he was trying to do but we soon figured out that he was trying to put his foot up on the shovel just like Mom had been. I wish I had a video of it but a picture will have to do. When I was pulling weeds he would come over to me, bend over, and pull at whatever was on the ground then hand whatever he "pulled" to me with a big grin on his face. He is too precious!! And he is going to be a great help this summer getting our yards/gardens into shape!