Back Yard Progress

 

Some of you may remember that we had to say goodbye to our tree house last fall.  The Silver Maple it rested in had a fatal fungus.  The tree was likely as old as the house--75 years.  We were sad to see it go.  

Step one was getting the tree house out of the tree.  My dad did that pretty much single handed.  If you look closely, you can see Solomon glumly looking on in the window.  

The tree came down, providing a fascinating spectacle for everyone who was home that day.  Our yard looked bare indeed when they were finished, plus there were several ruts from heavy machinery.  It was time for a revamp, so we began to re imagine the backyard.

It just so happened there were plenty of used swing sets on craigslist at the time (late April or early May).  Solomon helped me scope this one out.



A few weeks later, my Dad helped us disassemble and move it to our yard.  Solomon got a little practice with power tools.

 

The girls thought the 'Grandma's Attic' in the U-Haul was a good spot for a picture.

Meanwhile, we were doing some backyard gardening.  The ultimate goal is a butterfly garden back here, but this year it is more or less a flower garden.  We had lilies, joe pie weed, butterfly weed, and columbine from previous years.  Blue bachelor buttons, orange and red poppies, four o'clocks and sunflowers were all annuals we added to the mix.   

   

The cat is rather fond of the 'parent bench' (as in, the place for grown-ups to sit while the kids are on the playground). 

Wood chips from the tree made a path through the garden.  Ariadne enjoyed shoveling.  River rock we found the garden beds formed the sides of the path.  Note to all homeowners: don't bury landscaping rock, it will haunt future generations of gardeners.

My parents (especially my dad) have been a tremendous help through this entire process. Above my dad and Solomon are working on getting the roof up on the tower portion of the swing set.  Below my mom and the girls took a break from spreading wood chips to try out the swings.  

This is more or less where we are at present.  We added a heavy duty wave slide and replaced the old swings with Charlotte and Aria's swings (which had been suspended from the clothesline). More to come!