The Great Wall of Anson

Our big project for the summer was putting a new retaining wall in our backyard. When we moved into this house nine years ago, there was a nice wall made from red cedar beams. It made a nice elevated garden spot, but it also grew a ton of weeds. Over time, the ties broke and in one spot the wall started to fall down. We thought of all different ways to fix it and even dreamed of tearing down the wall and building a new one further back, giving us more yard to play in. This spring and summer we were finally in the position to do just that.

We hired our neighbor to tear down the wall, excavate the dirt and haul it off. That was a huge project. We had toyed with the idea of renting equipment and doing it ourselves. I am so glad we didn't . He brought in a Bobcat and had it all done in a day. It would have taken us forever. Sometimes it is worth paying for the expertise of a professional. The kids liked watching the machine dig out the dirt, although they did not like watching their backyard disappear.


Believe it or not, we found these old tires buried in all the dirt. Maybe I should be surprised that this is all we found.

The next phase of the project was to build a new wall. We hired our neighbor to do that, too. Once he got the first layer set and level, it went up pretty fast. Each of the blocks weighs 80 lbs. Again, it was a lot of work that went much faster in the hands of an experienced professional.


After the wall was built, we took over. We leveled the ground and ordered the sod. We called Grandpa and he came over for a "sod" party. They worked hard and had it done in one evening.
Of course, they had a few "helpers."




This is the picture that tells it all. Joseph and Dad were exhausted at the end of the evening. We ordered pizza and Dad took his with a few Ibuprofen. They were too tired to bother with sitting at the table. Thanks for all your hard work. After the sod was down, we had to water and wait. It was so hard for the kids to see the new green grass and not be able to play on it. They were very patient. And where was I during this whole project, you may ask? Most of the time I was feeding a baby. However, I did make a contribution. I spent a great deal of time online searching classifieds for a used swing set to put in our new backyard. (Joseph teases me that I was obsessed with my search. I probably was. It was almost addicting.) Our old set was breaking anyway and now we had much more room. In fact, moving the wall almost doubled our space. After weeks of looking, my efforts paid off. Thanks to some amazing friends with a flat-bed truck, we were able to pick up a swing set, haul it to our house, and have it set up, all in one day. The kids love it and Joseph was thrilled that it was already put together.





The best part? It even has a picnic table that Mom lets them eat lunch on. Could life be any better? I am so glad they have a fun place to play. I love to hear the swings going and the giggles. They have already had great adventures and I look forward to many more in the summers to come.