The Great Yard Project of 2014: Part I

The proof is everywhere that spring is here:

And with it comes the inevitable.

Yard work.

And this year we quite a list to tackle, about 3/4 of which is thanks to our three year battle with groundhogs. Not to be forgotten, the chipmunks decided to join in the party last summer so in addition to groundhog burrows we also are dealing with an extensive chipmunk tunneling system.

So far this season we have not seen any groundhogs anywhere (or chipmunks, for that matter, though I suspect they're hiding in there and just better at not getting caught). Maybe word got out that I'm the crazy groundhog catcher lady since I captured so many of them last year and kindly relocated them to  other wooded areas miles away in different cities.

This year is the year of tunnel destruction and garden bed reconstruction. It is not a fun job, and since we have signs of tunnels around most of the perimeter of our house as well in our back garden bed it was time to get serious about fixing this problem.

Groundhog holes everywhere!

It's not a fun job, and after spending the past few months setting more deterrents (we've exhausted just about everything on the market: pellets, moth balls, ground stakes that make noise, ammonia soaked rags, traps, and chewing gum. None of these worked very well.) we finally resorted to using a rather gross method that we heard was successful at driving them away. It's gross. Just trust me. It's coyote pee. See? I told you it was gross. And yes, it was by far the weirdest thing we've ever purchased.

Yard store worker: "Can I help you find anything?"
Us: "Uh, yeah. Could you direct me to your coyote urine section?"
Worker: quietly backs away.

At least, that's how it felt. But we used it, and it did work. But I've bought all the coyote pee I plan to buy in my lifetime and the time has come to destroy these habitats once and for all. We borrowed a rototiller and chopped up all the dirt around the house and collapsed the tunnels, then we're going to fill them up. We've got a truckload of dirt coming in about a week and then another truckload of mulch to put over that. Whew.

On top of that little project we also had The Case of the Garbage Swingset Tower to tackle. About two years ago a guy down the street moved and decided it would be nice to give us his daughter's old swing set. This thing had seen better days since it had been given to him used, followed by 9 years of use by his daughter. It was pretty rickety but we took it and salvaged what we could and left the rest behind the garage--which means that a huge swing set tower, slide, and random pieces of wood have been sitting back there waiting to be demolished this whole time.

Until today. I wish I would've taken a better before picture so you could have seen all the stuff back there, but just believe me when I say it was a lot. Chad pulled off the slide and managed to rebuild the staircase and move it over by Charlotte's swing set. Thanks to the true magic that is Magic Erasers the slide cleaned up great and looks like new.

Towards the end of demolition...

Cleaning up brush...

...mostly clean, now just needs some finishing touches!

We accomplished a lot today, thanks to our friend Mike's help and our neighbor's generosity in lending us their rototiller. And mostly, thanks to my dad for taking care of this all day:

She was washing bugs off his truck and decided to give her tricycle a nice scrubbing, too.

And she and Izzy picked all the "flowers" (dandelions) out of their backyard:

Tonight, we are sore. We are also out of yard bags. Turns out I should have bought another dozen, since that's about what we went through today.

Until next week...Landscaping Part II. Stay tuned.

~Stacy