Our Secret Forest and Our Torn-Up Yard

One of the reasons we bought the house we did eleven years ago was because waaaaay in the backyard, behind the garden shed, there's a forest... or as my kids used to call it, a "deep dark." I think I've been in the forest maybe five times, total -- usually looking for a child or a pet. Today, while doing some major gardening while T was building a wall, I went into the "deep dark" to dump a wheelbarrow load of brush, and I wondered why I don't go back there more often. You'd never know that there are neighbors witnin a stone's throw on three sides because our forest is truly a dense, natural Pacific Northwest deal.

We decided to re-do the front yard and hired a contractor to do most of the hardscape. Here are some "before" and "during" (now) pictures:













And "during" (now). Yes, that's the beginnings of a river rock wall:














And this weekend, T built this wall, while I weeded and hoed every inch of lawn (almost an acre of it) perimenter and flower beds. All I can say is everything HURTS!