Life went on/SFF the 2nd

Meanwhile, back at the ranch . . . 

life did go on while we did our yard.

For instance, I made this fruit pizza for dessert one Sunday.

And attended a family yard sale where I bought
the cutest little telephone table.

We also celebrated Mark's birthday some more

at Avenue's Bistro.

With John and Priscilla!

We also enjoyed the annual Taylorsville Dayzz Parade.

Taylorsville Dayzz has the best fireworks in the land

 so we watch them two nights.

And felt no need to see a show on the 4th of July.

So we went to Evanston, Wyoming,
to get the makings of our own show!

So on our 4th of July we had a full schedule.

We started with breakfast at The Original Pancake House
in Sugarhouse. Then we went to Mom's house to swim.

She joined us, however, she only wanted to play games on her ipad.

Then we went up Millcreek Canyon for a little hot dog roast.

"I made fire!"

"I love cherries."

"I made salad."

Mom, Priscilla, Mark, Lynn, Courtney and Paige

This is Courtney with her hot dog stick.

Years ago I bought these darling hot dog sticks at Swiss Days
and we have loved and used them for so long.
They are getting up there in years and have started 

breaking so I wanted to get a picture of them to keep forever!

The best part about hot dog roasts - are of course the s'mores!

But they are best when one does not burn the marshmallow.

Even Mom wanted to get in some roasting action.

If you ever look at this blog you will know,

that we always need to take some silly pictures!

Then our favorite little girls joined us for our firework show.

Maya, Paige & Jadyn

Here is Courtney lighting some of our fireworks.

Then we had a special visit from Jared and Nicole

and baby Amelia!

 I forgot to post this cute picture taken on our sod laying day

of Paige, John and Mark.

 

And just one more for good measure.

This is of my messiness after a day of sod laying.

 

 The morning after we cleaned up and went to

the Bountiful Utah Temple.

 We also had such a great time at a party where

all of Mark's siblings were in one place at one time.

All 11 kids!

Barbara, John, David, Priscilla, Peggy, Linda,

Lynn, Mark, Michael, Chris, and Susan

 Here is one of everyone who came to the party.

 On July 23rd when I got to work I found this on my desk.

A homemade chocolate croissant that my boss made and brought

in as a birthday treat for me!

The other day I saw these great

candles that represented four of the cities we are

planning on visiting next year.
It was so exciting

I had to take a picture of the candles!

Well there is still more summer to go so maybe there will be

a SFF the 3rd!

Wightman Back Yard Metamorphosis - Part 2

We hired Daniel Peterman,Terra Bella Care Landscaping,

to do our sprinklers.

Here is Daniel (in the Fully Invested shirt - which is not the entire reason we hired him but
of course it helped) with Hyrum, his right hand man.

Incidentally they go to school with Mackenzie at BYU.

And the work began.

Digging the trenches, etc.

Then, just like that, all of a sudden,

we had a working sprinkling system . . . 

in the front yard.

Not quite so quickly in the back.

First we needed some grading work done.

To fix some imperfections in the back.

Daniel did this work for us as well.

Flat (check), trenches covered (check), ready for trees and curbing.

And a bit more mess.

Then on June 27th so much stuff happened all at once.

Seven trees were delivered and planted

One Ash, three Hornbeam, one Locust, and two Linden trees.

Accent Curb-n-Edge came out and did our curbing.

Scott and his crew were great!

And quick!

It was also an interesting process.

It is beautiful.

I asked if I needed to know anything or do anything for the curbing

and Scott said, it just needs to stay dry for 5 hours.

So then it rained.

So we covered the curbing with plastic. Which didn't really help.

The girls wanted to carve something in the wet cement.

I was thinking initials or something, but my 2 missionary minded daughters

carved a scripture reference.

Isaiah 35:3-4

This whole process has not been inexpensive
so at one point we were going to plant the trees ourselves.

But now I am very glad we didn't.

 It was hard work!

Before Daniel returned the Bobcat he used to grade the yard

he hauled off all the fluff/grass. Yay!

 And at the end of the day, it looked like we might be getting somewhere!

July 5th = time to dig those large bags of dirt into the soil.

So glad we have good helpers.

 Barely visible here, we planted tomatoes, cucumbers and squash

as soon as possible. Still hoping for a little produce this summer!
Fingers crossed.

 The grass in the trenches is starting to come back in the front! 

 And we have started to plant other things in our border - lavender!

 We also put our rocks back in the perimeter interspersed with some lantana.

We were told that you have to order sod about 2 weeks out.

So when we were ready I called to order the sod.

Their next available delivery time was July 18th

4 1/2 weeks away!!!

So then we waited.

Finally July 18th arrived.

And so did the sod.

Emerald Turf was wonderful. They cut the sod that morning
and delivered it to us by 11:00 a.m.

A little while prior to the delivery I went outside to move the patio furniture.

And discovered a problem.

This green box was gushing out water - not cool!

I was so blessed though, because only a little water got into the basement and

thankfully Josh (our neighbor/friend) was home to rescue me.

The culprit. A cracked connector for the hose bib.

Then the fun really began!

We had lots of helpers.

Linda, Paige, Reegan (Daniel's son), and Josh. 

 Linda kept the sod moist.

 While most everyone else helped lay it.

 Except me, who mostly took pictures (I have been pretty consistent with this).

Really I helped. I was the cutter.

And there was lots of cutting to do. 

 Tony and John came to help as well. 

After it was all down, we had to roll it, to get it in better contact with our dirt.

Daniel was there to support, fix, and instruct.

He has been invaluable in the whole process! 

 At the end of Friday it looked wonderful! 

 Saturday we bought a bunch of shrubs to plant along the fence.

We were very impressed with J&J Nursery in Layton.

 And even on Monday evening

 we thought it still looked

 fabulous!

 Here are some close-ups

 of the plans

 for those who asked.

The final product does not look exactly like the plans

but we are more than thrilled with the whole thing.

Now it just needs time to grow

and lots and lots of weeding!