Right Now.

This is the view from my computer.

Can you see it?

Here, let me get a little closer.

What is that GREEN stuff?

Ok, you get it. We have grass. But it's so much more exciting than just "we have grass."

It's more like,

"We have GRASS!!!"

Ok, that doesn't paint a colorful enough picture.

Start it at 0:22. That excitement? Yeah, that's it...

Seriously, I haven't shown you guys my backyard much for a reason... And it pained me each time I've had to.

This swing transformation photo was particularly painful because it shows a large span of the yard, all the rocks/weeds/spray paint and overall neglect (see the before/after of the now-beautiful child's swing here). We never used the back yard because the rocks were so painful to walk on and it was just so unappealing.

But it's Spring! And Mr. Goats promised me that he'd get rid of all of the rocks by Spring, but he exceeded his promise and got me grass.

So you know what we did?

For the first time in our 3 years here, we had an outdoor easter egg hunt!

Now, let me tell you a few things out our backyard. If you follow me in facebook or twitter, you heard about finding pavers 8-10" into the rocks/dirt, but there's so much more to it. What we think happened was that the previous owners of this house (who were the original owners) started out with river rock in their back yard, they covered it with a few inches of dirt (along with the pavers that were already laid) and then later added mucho inches of crushed granite. So Mr. Goats took out as much as he could, but when he rototilled the dirt, he amassed more rocks/pavers. It was a huge mess. So this is quite a feat, I should say!

We only added a small section of grass (15' x 15' at the widest points) and were able to tap into the watering system the previous owners had installed to add sprinklers, so this should be little maintenance. Or... much less maintenance than a full backyard of grass!

To fill out the rest of the yard and make it entertaining-friendly, I drew a very sophisticated "plan".

You're allowed to laugh.

When you're finished laughing, here's a version that I hope better explains it ;-)

This is the preliminary plan. We've got an idea on which type of paver we'll be using for the patio, but nothing set in stone (pun may or may not be intended ;-)). Other than that huge project, everything else should be simple. We'll plant a citrus or two (not sure if two'll fit. Unfortunately my drawing isn't to scale), build a couple raised garden beds (and irrigate them now that we know how cheap/easy it is!) and build a retaining wall to hold some greens.

I don't want to plant too many plants because I do live in the desert and am very aware of our drought and the crazy politics concerning our water distribution, but I'll selfishly plant a few to make the yard appealing.

In the mean time, I have to convince Mr. Goats that building a pergola over the paver patio is a good idea. Anyone have suggestions on how to argue with him about that?

How's your Spring coming along?! Any fun outdoor activities for you?