Tapped Out Monday

Ha roo, pups and cool cats!  It's me - Zim!  Oh, Dave and I aren't tapped out!  In fact, it got chilly last night -- into the 40s (8-ish C) -- and us boys are ready to GO!!!  Mom and Dad are a bit tuckered out, though.  Despite us helping a LOT, they're zapped from working on a big landscape project.

It started before our driveway was ripped out.  There is a garden bed that runs the length of the drive - it was filled with a Mugho or Mugo Pine gone wild, and three Crimson Pigmy Barberry Bushes.  Dad dug up the pine before the driveway was taken out - click here to see where it used to be (check the first picture  in that post).  It was overgrown and the roots were doing bad things and ... let's just say the Mugo had to go-go!

 In better days, the bed in question looked like this:

Ahh! Those were the days! But so anyway... Dad dug up the Mugo and then two of the Barberries, and he and Mom removed the egg rock/river rock that served as the base of the bed. They smoothed it all out with shovels and rakes and stuff - it was a MESS out there! Oddly, Dave and I had to snoopervise from inside the house. It was exhausting work for us, as you can imagine!

When I went rock shopping with Mom the other day, we were actually on a scouting mission for rocks for that bed! Yesterday morning, Mom smoothed some more, then started laying fabric over the bed!

Mom seems to have a "thing" for fabric, doesn't she? Ha roo roo roo! This was landscape fabric, though; it's used as a weed barrier.  Oh, and Mom said if you want to meet everyone in your neighborhood, go outside wearing a dirty, raggedy sweatshirt, shorts, Crocs kneepads, garden gloves, legs and feet all muddy, and 15 mph winds with 30 mph gusts to style your hair -- apparently you are guaranteed to see everyone who lives in a 5 mile radius.

Anyway, over lunch, I heard Dad say that they were going to head back to the rock place to go get rocks!!! REALLY?!?!? Oh, I wanted to go soooooo badly! Mom said "bipeds only" this trip and reminded me of this sign at the rock place:

Very funny, Mom! My new girlfriend had the day off anyway, so I didn't miss much.

Mom and Dad were really excited when they got home and spent lots more time out there with shovels and rakes and Dad's muscles - it's a good thing Dave and I were able to help by watching them out the front windows! Before we knew it, Mom said, "C'mon, boys! I have something to show you!"

We headed out there and wowzers! It was all so different! Here's Dave down at the bottom where the Mugo-a-go-go was:

Mom and Dad (mostly Dad) had moved that egg rock/river rock onto a tarp, cleaned it off, then put it back in the "new" bed.

Further up toward the house, they put in more of the cool boulders they bought:

"I really like the depth of color in these ones!"

That kind of blue/green stuff on the lawn is grass patch stuff where the Mugo killed the grass.  We're just at the very season-end of where you can seed your lawn - we're hoping it will take!

Here's an over-all shot:

Come Spring, Mom said she's going to nestle pots of plants in there with the rock chunks.

They bought one more rock - a chunk of limestone. It's up on the porch; can you see it? Let's take a closer look!

Now that's what I'M talking about!!! That's worth posing with!

I let Mom and Dad sleep in until 0530 this morning, since they've been working so hard.  Yeah, that is sleeping in for me.  Hey - they're the ones who named me after a Drill Sergeant!  Ha roo roo roo!

I hope you enjoyed seeing Mom and Dad's latest project!

Play bows,
Zim