This was my pile by the end of the day. I think. It doesn't look very impressive, and in truth, it's not, but it was SERIOUS work! It took a lot of effort not to feel discouraged by the sight knowing that we would be lucky if it was even enough to fill one row of bricks. Sigh...
While I worked on the gravel, Ryan worked on getting everything set to start laying bricks. This was not easy work either. He put down a layer of paver sand and gravel (the tiny stuff - not what I was digging up) to give it a solid and level platform to start on.
Over the next few days, my pile grew fairly significantly. At least in this view you can see how wide the pile was. And it grew in length too.
As my pile grew, the wall grew along with it. We knew once we got the base layer down, the rest would go pretty fast - depending on how quickly I could dig gravel, of course.
Sadly, by the time we had about two rows of bricks up, my pile was nearly gone. SO depressing!
The picture below shows the progression of another tier, but they weren't filled with gravel.
So we made the decision to buy gravel. The idea of this is still ludicrous to me as our side yards are FILLED with gravel... BUT, there was just no way. I physically did not have the stamina or time to dig up as much gravel as we needed. Granted, I am still unsure of what we are supposed to do with all the gravel in the backyard now (I still want it gone so I can do something a little more beautiful, but I guess we will cross that bridge when we get there.)
Ryan called a few places and giving them the rough area of the wall we were building, they suggested getting something like 30 tons of gravel. Say what?! 30?!?! Ryan originally planned on getting something like... 3. Hahaha. So he decided to get 11 tons. In case you are wondering - this is what 11 tons of gravel looks like....
Speechless. (Clearing throat) I mean, oh that little pile? Psh. I could have totally dug that up in my backyard. No problem.... If I had a year to do it. Maybe. ;)
Pierscen was asleep when the dump truck came, which was essentially the reason I made that little video. But he was thrilled to see the pile when he woke up and made great use of the new mountain in the driveway.
By the end of the night, we had actually made a pretty big dent in it. Keep in mind that it's not just for filling the brick, but actually back filling the area behind it. That's where most of it was going anyway.
Here is Pierscen hard at work. Hahaha.
As predicted, the progress went much faster once we had that much gravel at our disposal. You can see the geogrid stuff behind Pierscen in the pictures above. That's the stuff we had to roll out every few layers to help keep things sturdy and was also the main reason we had to dig the wall back several feet. Thanks again Justin for the use of your tractor!
Along with the progress... I would also like to point out the relocation of the pile itself in this picture. Yes, we had gone through a bunch of it, but Ryan ordered some fire wood and I knew there was nowhere for it to go if I didn't move the gravel. So one day I spent a few hours shoveling up the gravel into the wheelbarrow and moving it so that I truck could pull in a drop off the wood. Super wife to the rescue! ;)
Aside from working on the wall, we did a lot of other fun things too. We went out to visit Jackson and Tanya in their new house and got to tour their land. It's pretty dang cool. Those boys are going to have a lot of great memories out there!
When we get out and about in places like this, Pierscen just loves to run. Run and run and run. And it's very hard to get him to stop. Can you spot him in the picture below? He's that tiny speck at the end of the path along with Doc, the lab. Just as we were getting close to him, he tripped and fell in one of the only cactus plants on the path. Go figure. His hands were coated in tiny little thorns. What are those even called? Quills? Anyway, he was very brave and held still while I pulled most of them out. Poor kid.
I snapped the picture below to showcase some of the great things from our garden. We might have a tiny backyard, but at least we have been able to get some good produce.
We attended another Home Depot craft day. Ryan was at a camp out, I think. Our friend Vivi came by and was nice enough to drive us over there so we could participate. They made little bird houses. It was the 75th anniversary of The Wizard of Oz, so the houses came with stickers from the movie and even had the witch's feet sticking out from the house. P didn't end up using the stickers and opted to paint his entirely black. It made a good haunted house.
The pictures below are taken at church - obviously. But I snapped them because on the drive over there, I heard P say from the back, "I look pretty handsome!" I couldn't agree more little dude.
And then there was the the after church fiasco - falling asleep at the table.
I had a video of the head bobbing and near face plant, but it seems to have disappeared. Oh well.
We spent some good time at the park. I think this was on a day when I was considering taking him to toddler swim at the rec, since he has been asking to go for a while, but I decided that as long as the weather is nice, we are staying outside. It's going to be a long winter. We need as much outdoor time as possible.
As promised... a few more pictures of the sunflowers. You can see how much they "plumped" out. I loved watching the bumblebees out there. I think these orange belted ones are so cool!
September also marked the start up of Little Hands at the art museum again. (They didn't hold it during the summer.) It was nice to be back.
Speaking of sunflowers... I found one of the smaller sunflower heads knocked clean off and on the ground. Still no idea what happened. I wasn't sure what to do with it since it wasn't terribly developed and I didn't think we could dry the seeds for the birds or anything. So I left it on the end of the railing. One day, I went out onto the deck to see this...
This little squirrel had no issues with the fact that the seeds weren't very big or dry. It was amazing to watch. He/She devoured it! Pierscen and I stood out there watching it for a long time. It was incredible to see how fast it shelled the seeds, snarfed them down, and dropped the shells. We eventually spooked it, but it came back later to finish the job.
Perhaps the most amazing of all, however, was watching this:
Seriously, these animals are incredible! It scaled the plant (it's no wonder they were bent over so far!) and then holding on with it's back paws, dangled from the plant in order to reach underneath, pull out the seeds, and eat. It was awesome!
Along with the snow brought another bad breathing spell on for Pierscen. I can't say for sure if the two were related, but it sure seems that way. Poor kiddo.
One big thing for me was that I changed out the curtains in my bedroom. These curtains were left by the previous owners and worked pretty well with the brown accent wall. However, the wall is now gray. And these curtains are cheap and sun faded. So I spent a lot of time looking and looking and looking. Then one day, I found a combination at Bed Bath and Beyond that actually made my little heart pitter patter.
I took my time buying them as I had to wait for coupons and deals and this and that. When I finally had all the pieces together, I couldn't wait to get them up.
My only "regret" is that I didn't iron them before hanging them. I did throw them in the dryer and that helping, but I haven't actually seen my iron since we moved in over two years ago. Yup - we don't have much cause for ironing in this house. Haha. I do know where my ironing board is if that counts. ;)
I had my glucose test done sometime during the month. I really didn't want to drag him along, so my friend watched him. When I came to pick him up, he had no desire to leave. He loves going to Landon's house! They had cookies and Popsicles, made a craft, built a fort and watched Toy Story (P's favorite). We are so lucky to have such great friends! (And my glucose came back great, btw).
I took the pictures below because I was rather impressed with his painting skills. He was very specific with what color he wanted each section. It was pretty neat.
You can definitely tell that P is a piano teacher's child. The other day I was reminding my student of the bass clef saying to remember the notes. "Good boys don't fight...." From the couch Pierscen yelled "Alligators!" I think he has heard that a time or two. Haha. He has a hard time when my students receive their treat at the end of the lesson if they got all their practicing in. So one day after my student left, I could hear P playing the piano. I could also hear him whispering. So I went to investigate. He had pulled out a piano book and was pointing at each note and playing the piano as he moved his finger from note to note. (They weren't the right ones, but he has the right idea). It was so cute! I think he really wanted to earn a treat for practicing!
We've had some beautiful fall weather, so I took P down by the river to let him throw rocks in the river. It was very picturesque.
We also participated in National Public Lands Day by helping to clean up along the Platte River. Ryan worked with the other guys to wrap wire around trees to keep the beavers from chewing them down. Pierscen and I picked up trash.
We had a great turnout from our ward and there was an awesome lunch provided afterward. Good stuff! It was a fun experience.
The last activity we had was finger/feet painting at the Nic. I was so worried about the paint not coming out, but it washed off pretty easily. Phew!
So there you have September. A lot of wall building, some crazy squirrels, mostly great weather with a freak snow storm, new curtains, service projects, rock throwing, etc. Good times. The end.
