Who stole all our grass??

We did.

Yesterday, Saturday, we drove to our local hardware store in the morning and picked up a gas powered sod cutter.

We had marked out with little white flags where we wanted to take up the grass. Just before we started, Barry stopped by to help for a little bit. Steve cut the sod in long strips up and down the yard, and Zoe cut the long strips into shorter pieces, which she then rolled up into "sod sushi". The sushi rolls were loaded onto either a hand dolly or the back of the pickup truck, then transported to the neighbor's yard.

Thankfully, we have two great neighbors that both needed lots of sod. One neighbor had a new addition added to their house and their yard was all torn up. The neighbor on the other side has a low spot that floods during heavy rains. The sod was cut very thick, so it easily filled up the low spot. Where one layer wasn't quite enough, two layers of sod built up the spot nicely.

The largest 'swath' is along the south side, following the street. The second cut extended the bed under the cedar tree, which Steve has always wanted a bit bigger. The third was cut in between two existing beds to make one large oval-shaped bed. The last cut is triangular with one edge up against the sidewalk. This bed brings our Japanese maple and our newly planted lilac into one bed, and splits one of our two main paths, providing a bit of interest (and hopefully a bit of fragrance) at the end of the path.

Saturday we managed to make all the cuts, and roll up and move most of the large "swath".
Sunday, we cleaned up the last bits of the large cut, and rolled the sod from the other three cuts.
Zoe cleaned up all the edges next to the sidewalk and curb, while Barry helped Steve to roll and move the sod. When all the sod was removed, Barry and Steve cleaned up with rakes and shovels, all the remaining grass roots. Zoe kept everyone going strong with a lunch of turkey and veggie burgers with all the fixins, cole slaw and salad.

After 12 hours of hard work over two days, we are all thoroughly shattered. It'll take some time to re-coop. Our muscles are sore, our legs and arms feel like spaghetti, and Steve is nursing a bad sunburn on the back of his neck.

Once we get some compost and mulch down, and start watching things grow, it will all be worth it!