The Magnificent Front Circle

I bet you are all wondering where we put all that rock so lovingly sifted away from the yucky dirt.

Here is where most of it went. It was nice to have the dirt covered for the first time ever. The remaining rock went to form a 18 inch path between the fence and the new bushes in the front.

This is what the front looked like 1 year ago and the man who dared to rip out the junipers while Dad wasn't looking.

New and improved front.
Too many man hours to even count, removal of about 10 yards of rock, 8 yards of dirt, placement of 41/2 tons of rock around the tree, 10 yards of redwood mulch (some of that went to the front corner) planting loads of different plants.

Side Note: Towards the end of this project we had a pile of 2 yards of mostly dirt with a few rocks that we needed to get rid of. Every time any of us looked at it we wanted to barf just thinking about shoveling it in and out of the trailer. Dirty dirt (that means dirt with nasty ugly rocks interspered in it) is difficult to unload on anyone.
On Monday I was driving by the Presbyterian church and noticed big tractors working there. We had noticed over the past year dirt accumulating there in massive amounts, but never saw any of it taking place. I decided I had nothing to lose and everything to gain, stopped and asked if we could dump 2 yards of dirty, dirt. His reply was "sure bring it down." I drove the 2 miles home quickly, Troy hooked up the trailer and we all, (Stacy included) started to load the dirt. The problem, it had rained and the dirt was more like mud and very heavy and we needed to have it there by noon, it would take 2 trips. Ugggg were is Dan when you need him?
The first load took 45 minutes just to put it in the trailer, and at least that long to unload it because Stacy and I were worthless and Troy did all the work. After a smoothie break we started on the last load. It was well after noon so we were trying to hurry. Half way done Stacy announces that her back is KILLING her and she can't do anymore and could I please call one of the good looking, strong young men in the ward. I did and this very nice, handsome, recently returned missionary showed up (in his red car and white shirt, OK a white Tee shirt) to help load the remaining 1/4 yard and then off he and Troy went to the dumping grounds. Meanwhile I was on a search for plants and returned to Troy and Stacy laughing. When questioned about the reason for such jovial behavior despite this dirty hard work they informed me that the nice guys on the big tractors drove up to the back of the trailer and scooped out all the dirt for them. That was such a nice thing to do, now I ask you why did they not do that when they saw an old lady, a cute young thing, and handsome Troy unloading it ever so slowly just an hour before? Oh well the dirt pile was gone and we were all HAPPY about that, the remaining small pile got washed away in the ensuing 3 massive rain storm. The rain also did a nice job cleaning the driveway of all our tracked on dirt.

Thanks to Marion at UCAR and Troy who contributed plants to fill in all this space. All are low maintenance and low water usage. THANKS to Doug, Heather, Andrew, Clint and Aubrey who gave me b-day money for plants which I put to good use here.

Stacy refurbished the original light poles and made them look like new. I still need to made an address plaque to hang from them, but that will wait for awhile. We took the 28 large rocks we discovered buried beneath the junipers and spread them around on the beds while saving a few really promising one for the future water feature in the back yard.
So it is finished. We like it and its drastically different appearance from that we had looked at with great distaste, (only LaVon had distaste for it) for 21 years. I will not miss shearing those ugly overgrown bush for a minute and I am sure Dans allergies will be much happier next year.