Tearing Up Some Yard, A Family Affair

Jonathan has fixated on a spot beside our driveway.  It has been quite ugly since we moved in and throughout the summer crab grass has made its stake on the seemingly vulnerable spot.  Here is the only photo I could find of it from earlier in the spring.  It is the dead spot on the other side of the driveway (Jonathan spreading crab grass preventer, I think, on the rest of the yard)-

Thankfully a month ago I stumbled upon a garden tiller for sale which helped greatly in the tearing up process.  Jonathan gave the area a good chopping and then put us ALL to work raking, sifting and leveling the area. (Note: Jonathan did most of the work, but everyone did 'contribute' a little)

Lots of clumps-

Earn your dinner boy-

Trouble shooting a possible problem, "bring in the special team".

Grub and bug control!

Do your thing ladies-

Chief inspector checking a sample size of dirt (or something like that)-

Guess if you want to fully know the dirt you need to wear the dirt-

She does boost the worker's morale-

Why do babies insist on putting rocks in their mouths?

Gotta give a shout out to Sallye Ander's No-Bite-Me Cream in the above photo (the white container at baby's feet).  We have bad mosquitos and Triple E found in our area so I have to use something that works.  Completely natural for babies, extremely effective and smells so nice.

Big sand box? 

I will let him lay in the dirt to keep him content so we can work.

They thought the clumps should be thrown back into the yard-

Eventually we were all fired and had to go back into the house.  Jonathan did get it all leveled and seed scattered before it got dark.
I think its appropriate to add that I don't really like crab grass.  I participate in the daily watering because I don't want to sift and rake chopped crab grass clumps through that sandy soil again.  Now we are just waiting for the grass to grow and it better not be crab.