At the start of this summer season, we busted out the grill.  A hand-me-down 1970’s Weber charcoal unit that has seen it’s fair share of misery through the years.  Dents and rust prove that it has been well loved, and we decided that it was finally time to let the old guy retire.  As a Father’s Day gift, Craig chose a brand new dual burner unit with a unique feature – it can cook with gas OR charcoal!  Charcoal for the days when taste is a high priority and gas for convenience.  It is the best of both worlds, but it did present us with some challenges because of it’s size. It is at least 3 times larger than the Weber and does not hide discretely near the side of the garage when not in use.

Craig has been such a good sport for the past 15 + years we have been together.  Most of the time he will entertain my crazy ideas and is usually the one handling the bulk of the labor to bring them to life.  Begrudgingly at times, perhaps… but he gets the job done.  Every once in a while I try to contribute my own sweat equity and tackle a project without enlisting his help – to give the poor man a rest!  And so, with the goal of giving the grill a home and Craig a space to enjoy some solitude while he uses it, I set to work on a long forgotten corner of the yard.

Many of you know that we sold our American Foursquare home in the historic district of our city and moved out to ‘the farm’ in 2015. We are currently renting the homestead of Craig’s grandparents.  The lived here for well over 50 years before moving to an apartment when they were in their late 80’s.  Needless to say, in those last few years they lived at the farm, they did not have the energy to keep up the yard work and other home repair projects.  This little patch was no exception.  While it used to be the backdrop of nice landscaping, it had been overtaken by weeds. The landscape rocks? They were pretty well buried under the weeds and years of sediment.  Exhibit A: The Before

Ugh, well that was embarrassing to share!  See that broken window?  Yeah, not safe, especially when you have kids who like to roam around barefoot during the summer months!

The idea was simple.  Get rid of the weeds, free all of the landscape rocks from their dirt prison, and clean up the area. Before I go any further let me just say that if any of you reading this believe that sounds like fun, you might want to have your friends and family hold an intervention.  It wasn’t fun.at.all.  Part way through the project Craig looked at me and said something along the lines of ‘Why do you keep doing this to yourself?’ – I could only muster up a small sigh and a shrug of my shoulders. What could I say? I’m a glutton for punishment apparently.  As time went on and the rocks seemed to be multiplying, I came up with some creative ways to sort them faster.  There was the ‘rake sifter’ method, the ‘scoop and sort’, and my all time favorite (and fastest) the ‘rock and roll’ – where I essentially kept rolling the rocks down the sidewalk until the bits of dirt and debris fell off and only the rocks remained.  True insanity.  Every once in a while the kids would stop by to make sure their mom hadn’t completely lost her mind. They would pluck a few rocks into the buckets before boring of the tedious task and finding something fun to do.

Kids are fast learners.

So there you have it:  I sorted and moved around thousands and thousands of rocks.  Now I’m done, and Craig has a place to grill.  If that doesn’t prove my unending love for him, I’m pretty sure nothing will. Please be impressed with Exhibit B: The After