I should probably find work as a landscaper now

I know it may not look like it, but a lot of hard
work went into that little bit.

For some reason I have decided to build a rock patio.

Maybe it's because my children are a bit older and can spend time outside without me constantly running after them to make sure they don't charge into the busy road in front of our house.  They can occupy themselves without me, though of course that doesn't stop them from asking for multiple cups of juice and milk and water and then the littlest one needs a bathroom break from all the juice and milk and water and the oldest one insists that I push him on the swing and the youngest wants me to hold her while I push the oldest on the swing.

Ahem.

Or maybe it's fact that it's gardening weather - it's finally warm enough to make things like 'walking out the back door' a little easier.  We've been cooped up all winter, which takes its toll on all of us outside people.  I've felt stagnant and unable to do anything to improve the yard while the weather was the way it was. 

Or maybe it's the story I'm writing for the newspaper on hardscapes that got me thinking that this was something to do.

We love child labor in this house.

Whatever the reason, I started work Sunday afternoon.

No plan.  No experience.  I just started digging.

We have an area to the left of our back steps that for as long as we've lived her has been overgrown with random grass-type plants.  There's a really pretty clematis and some columbines there, as well, but they seem to be overshadowed by the mess. 

We'd been talking about putting a rock patio there for awhile now.  And we have all the rocks that we've collected from around our yard and my parents' house.  So I thought: Why not?  Why not now? 

So I got a shovel and a wheelbarrow full of sandstone rocks and started work.  I've been digging down, trying to make it as level as possible, which is a bit difficult with these lumpy, awkward rocks.  It's not going to be a permanent fixture - just something to hold us over until we can afford to do it the right way. 

But it's kind of cool.  It's like a puzzle with really heavy pieces that don't fit together exactly, but are good enough.

Sebastian has been helping me, shoveling dirt and gathering rocks.  And the kid loves puzzles as much as I do so he's really enjoying putting the pieces together.


I'm sore from all the lifting and bending in places that I didn't know could be sore (the top of my butt?  REALLY?).  But it feels good.  I like the work and the accomplishment I can see progressing from just my own two, rough, scraped up hands.

I had plans to work on it again this morning but it rained just enough earlier to make it too muddy to work.

I don't claim that this will be the nicest rock patio anyone has ever seen.

But I can say that I built it.