Sweat equity

For those of you who are familiar with our house saga, you know about the infamous crater. Our perfect little starter home was handed to us in a fleece: the gas fireplace does not have gas logs, but real ones; and the backyard came equiped with its own pool-shaped crater (from the above-ground pool we had removed in the contingency contract).

This crater has stared at us every time we visit the backyard. It doesn't just sit there; it looms. It has even gone so far as to laugh at us -- which we don't quite appreciate.

Dealing with the crater has been on our to do list since we discovered it (naturally, after signing the contract for the house, site unseen). But like most things on to do lists, we never thought we'd actually get around to it.

For the last week, One Way and I have been busy at work finishing our raised garden bed which will double as a large terrarium for Yoda. After filling in the dirt Friday night (instead of going to temple ...), we decided that on Saturday we'd go to the garden center to look for fall/winter planting seeds for the garden. Though we went to the center on Saturday, what we came home with was three truck loads of top soil -- and stoic determination to fill in the crater.

It was kind of hot -- not Charleston-hot, mind you, but hot enough for me to decide this would be a perfect opportunity for me to document One Way filling in the crater, and sit in the shade. So, I took some photos.

In the photo, you can see that One Way and I have filled in much of the crater, which I have now dubbed the Black Sea.



When One Way notices I'm taking pictures, he decides to show off a little.





Here is a nice photo of the Black Sea.



Here we can see that the crater has indeed been vanquished. Hip hip hooray! (One Way is talking to his mama on the phone about his accomplishment)



Then, I got distracted by our pretty Zinnias in bloom.



One Way seeded the Black Sea.



And then our Black Sea was transformed into the Straw Sea.



At the end of the day, Ana was exhausted, which baffled both One Way and me, since she sat inside while we worked.