Dirt, Scheduling and Juggling

One thing that was over the top on our landscaping bid was the fill dirt. The landscaper quoted $1000 for 10 cubic yards of dirt. With that exception, his bid came in at a great rate, so DH decided to handle the dirt himself. On Thursday, I returned home from work to find 2 tons of sand on tarps at the side of my driveway. The pile stands approx five feet tall and is as long as it is high. It's a LOT of sand that DH is transporting to the back yard one wheelbarrow at a time.

The huge pile of sand now sits to the side of my driveway on
my front lawn. DH has the tarp weighted down with some of
the old patio blocks that we're pulling out. We might end up
needing a second shipment, but we'll have a much better idea
after meeting with the landscaper a second time. 

Next week he'll have the Xcel Energy guy over to take a look at moving the anchoring guy line to the backyard utility pole on Tuesday, and a second meeting with the landscaping service hopefully later in the week, then we can sign a contract and get the landscaper onto the calendar for sometime in September. We want the whole thing wrapped up by October and still have to arrange for the Tuff Shed to be erected on the pad that the landscaper will make as part of the backyard.

From the front, looking from the house toward the street. When I
got home from work the next day, an appreciable part of this
pile had already been moved down to the patio level, one wheelbarrow
at a time. What a job! 

So that's one hand of juggling. The other hand - my hand - is juggling the fact that Renaissance Festival begins the weekend of the 19th of August, the State Fair is coming up quickly, and I'm narrowing down my choices for my holiday card image/format. I need to get my paper materials ordered - the cards and envelopes, as soon as possible and get to work on these. I know it's only early August, but they take time and rushing is NOT acceptable. I want to hand color each card - I have to build that time into my schedule.

We're juggling a lot of things right now to make
everything fall into place. It's turning out to be
easier to plan than to do, and there are some parts
of our plans that require two people. We'll make
it work, but it's not coming easy. 

So, it's still cold out, but the outdoor pool is my goal this morning - cold or not. The water will be warm and I treated us to Pad Thai for dinner last night, so I have one pound to work back off. It was worth the price - the food was delicious. Have a great weekend!