Transformation

Matt and I were sitting in our backyard the other night, enjoying the beautiful evening weather, watching our children chase each other and tackle one another to the ground, when Matt made the comment, "there is a lot of sweat in the ground back here". And he's right. There was a lot of sweat, a little bit of blood, countless blisters, and maybe even a few tears put into our yard but it was worth it. SO worth it! It's been fun for us to look at the 'before' pictures of the house and compare that view to now. We shake our heads a little at what it looked like when we bought this house and think about all the stages and changes since then. Although there is still work to do, it has been fun to see our vision become a reality. 

Home Sweet Home

The Front Yard - June 2011

July 2012

Side yard looking into the back yard - 2011

 Oct 2012 (picture of when the grass was just starting to fill in)

closer view-  March 2013

View of the patio 2011

Patio 2013

Back yard 'upper level' 2011

'upper level' March 2013

'Lower level' 2011

(we believe that this was where the previous owners had an above ground pool)

View to the left

View to the right

wider shot of the view to the right

2013

View to the left 

view to the right

closer view to the right/garden area

Looking back toward the house/ 'upper yard'- 2011

Looking toward the house/ 'upper yard'- March 2013

Matt and I did 95% of the work ourselves. We had a service come cut down the dead trees and grind the stumps but that was the only thing we didn't do on our own. We took down fences and sheds, tore out overgrown shrubs, vines, and bushes. We laid the paver patio and walkway. Matt taught himself (thanks to youtube and other internet sources) to install an underground sprinkler system which we put in ourselves (during the hottest week of the summer = LOTS of sweat). We shoveled load after load of dirt, stomped it out, rolled it flat and level, planted the grass, watered, and waited. Now all that hard work has paid off. No more kids complaining of prickers in the feet after running around barefoot. No more dirt EVERYWHERE. No more worrying that a heavy wind will bring down the dead tree onto our roof... I could go on and on.  We have a few more projects that we'll tackle in the yard eventually but for now, we're going to sit back and enjoy. :)

The Farmer

The Dutch translation of DeBoer is 'The Farmer'. In the past, connecting the word farm, in any way, to our family would be a stretch- a long one. Matt is not an animal-lover, or even really an animal-tolerater if we're being totally honest. Our kids are interested in animals (Luke is actually pretty obsessed with animals these days. I attribute that to watching Go Diego when Elin naps. It is in no way an influence of his father.) Elin points out any puppy she sees or hears but the fascination fades as soon as the dog gets close. 

We are not great with plants either. I love the idea of having a lush garden with both beautiful flowers and fresh vegetables. I have attempted this almost every summer and almost every summer I end up with nothing to show for it except dead plants. I am not one to give up, however. In fact, I'm usually too stubborn for my own good (just ask Matt). When we bought this house there was a section of the backyard that we assume was used as a dog pen or something like it by the previous owners. Immediately I envisioned my dream garden going there, once we cleared out all the mess that is. 

This is the garden area pre-clean up. 

And post-clean up.... 

Matt built me raised beds and filled them in with the dirt left over from last fall when we did a major backyard overhaul. He also planned out raised sprinkler heads for that area and laid them in when we put the sprinkler system in over the summer. This way we can program the system to water the garden everyday so I don't have to remember or find someone to come take care of it when we're out of town. 

We bought some seeds for 20 cents a package and went for it. Luke and Elin had fun helping me dig out the rows and plant the seeds. Since then they've been great little farmers - helping water (Matt has to fix some sprinkler heads so we're watering by hand for now) and weed. 

Our Garden

We've already seen some success! It is so fun to go out there each morning and see what new seeds are sprouting up. We planted tomatoes, zucchini, squash, snap peas, green beans, carrots, green peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, sweet basil, cilantro, strawberries and watermelon. So far, we have at least two of each plant growing fairly well. So at the very least we're hoping for one decent salad by the end of the season. Who knows, maybe farming is in our blood after all!