After many half assed, half hearted, not so sure what I want to do attempts — I’m doing something to the lawn. Next week I’ll start seeding the grass, and hedging bushes, but this weeks project was all about the backyard pavers. Combined with the garage, this walkway, separates the grass and gives off the visual effect of two backyards.

For a year and a half the Midwest has been the backdrop of our life, and beside mowing the lawn, and edging, I haven’t really put my stamp on the yard. Now things are different. The feelings have gone from, “Why the hell did we leave the comforts of Northern California for the freezing ass Midwest —  to, “This may be home, so lets act like it.”

A day ago spring blessed us for about 36 hours so I came outside to do some work. We finally got weather warmer than 30-somethig. In fact the high for the day I worked on this was 72°. We’re back down to 40° but I digress.

So, without further ado, here’s phase one of many landscaping projects:

As you can see, this lawn was neglected long before we got here. There was literally grass (complete with actual soil) growing on top of the pavers. Before I could even think about removing the weeds between the cracks, I had to remove a few years worth of growth off the edges. Whilst doing so, I uncovered pavers I had no idea were there. Lets just say this little area widened.

I really wish I could find the photo of before I started taking bricks out. It was patchy holes, regular housing bricks stuck inside holes fit for yard pavers, and tripping hazards. Just a mess. So a game of real life Tetris was played. We won!

For a couple of hours, I scraped out every weed (dead, alive or newly formed), every piece of grass, and old caked up dirt stuck between every crack of this surface.  And here is the final result:

Hope you like it as much as I do. I feel a sense of relief as well as accomplishment. Next I’m going to get this grass together starting next week. This winter has been brutal, and it hasn’t quite loosened it’s grip on us all yet. So I’m just now getting around to it.

I will be sure to keep you all updated. I have a lot of projects to do. Welcome to the new Couch Sports: Activities for Grown Folks.