Stoned.

"My evil plan to rule the backyard is complete."

"Heehee!"
Over the past two weekends, our mud pit (also know as our backyard) underwent a major face lift. The combination of massive dogs and massive trees has left our beautiful yard the eye sore of our home. Every time it rains I have 8 paws of mud running about my clean house. Chris and I concocted a plan that entailed creating flagstone paths around the perimeter of the yard where the dogs chase squirrels. Also, we added river rock to all the flower beds. In the end, we moved 6.5 tons of river rock and flagstone from our driveway into our backyard . Wow. Sounds like a Biggest Loser challenge, huh? It was a lot of hard labor. Not to mention, I hate dirt. Dirt means bugs. Bugs mean the possibility of running into cockroaches. I have an unnatural fear of cockroaches. It all began my first year in Texas when a 6 inch (I swear, it was) cockroach FLEW into my bedroom. My apartment in college didn't help my fear. It was named Casa Rosa (ironically, it was blue). I called it "Cock-A-Roacha" due to my unwanted roommates. Sure enough, I came in contact with an evil roach living in the stone pile. I screamed and whined and cried a bit, but I kept my eye on the goal- a clean house and backyard for Josh to play.

Josh was helpful, as always. He thoroughly enjoyed being pushed around in the wheelbarrow, playing in the sprinkler, and eating the rocks (don't worry, I didn't let them go down).

Meanwhile, as Chris, Josh, and I were sweating outside in the Texas heat, Murphy and Jackson (the two who caused this whole muddy mess) were in the A/C enjoying a little shut eye.

I am too embarrassed to post BEFORE pictures of the mud pit. But, here is the fruit of our hard work....

This part doesn't look that great, but will hopefully be very functional for us.

Most of the work went into the side yard which was literally all dirt before we created the flagstone path and put in both sections of rock. The plan is for the dogs to run along this path and not the (little) grass we have growing. We'll be keeping our fingers crossed. If this doesn't work, there may be two dogs up for grabs- just kidding!