It's Easter and There's a Bobcat in my Yard

So, when I left-off yesterday, Nick and I realized the project for the day was to work on the landscaping in the side yard and dig a trench to help deal with the drainage.

So, we got out the shovels and started digging. After about 10 minutes, Nick decided he wanted to get a pick axe, and took off for the hardware store to buy one. I continued digging.

Thirty minutes passed and Nick wasn't back yet. I thought it was taking him a while to run into town and was starting to get concerned. But I didn't worry too much, yet, and kept digging with the goal of connecting the hole I was working on to the hole he was working on. I felt that 6 feet of trench work would be a significant accomplishment. Once I finished it (probably after an hour), Nick still wasn't back yet. I went around the house to go inside and call him when I noticed someone coming down the road on a Bobcat. After a few seconds, I realized the driver was wearing an olive green shirt, just like Nick. Then I realized it was Nick.

It turns out that once he got to the hardware store, Nick remembered the store was closed on Easter, so what was typically a 24 hour rental was going to become a "til Monday morning" rental. He decided to rent a Bobcat.

So here's a bunch of before, during, and after shots.

Before:
(These shots were both taken last September, when we had the initial house inspection.)

Garden site, where 20x60 feet of sod needs to come up.

Unused driveway, where we'll run a trench to direct the water away
from the foundation; plus some grass would be nice.

Saturday work:

Nick using the Bobcat to dig a trench in the unused driveway.

Saturday's Results:

Unused driveway area, dug up.

Sunday work:

Nick lifting sod out of the garden.

Putting sod down along the dug up driveway area.

Close up of Nick putting down the sod.

It's coming along.

Sunday Results:

Dug out 20x60 food garden plot.

Finished laying the sod on the old driveway.

Nick applying finishing touches: grass seed.

Now, I don't want you to get the wrong impression. I know in all the pictures Nick is doing the work. When I wasn't taking pictures, I was helping get the sod off the Bobcat, filling in holes, and making the sod lay down as nicely as possible. Some of the spots were a foot thick. Sometimes the sod came off the Bobcat upside down, so I had to flip a lot of it over. Also, the sod wasn't in nice perfect rolls, or anything like that. The edges were jagged and there were a lot of chunks.

We definitely don't have a golf course grade lawn from this, but it is a huge improvement, the drainage coming off the hill should be a lot nicer. And, Mother Nature will level a lot of this out.

I can't imagine how much time this would have taken by hand. We're guessing Nick spent 10 hours on the Bobcat.