The Markley's: if you ever think you should sod your own yard...

...think again!! how hard it could it be? you just rake up the dirt and lay down some squares, right? ha! it was a full blown three day project, but oh so gratifying to see that beautiful carpet of green :) now, if it will just grow!!

this is ONE truckload, we had TWO. each weighs 2,000 lbs. we purchased 4,000 lbs of grass...is that as shocking to you as it is to me?!

first, you have to move all the squares out of the truck...it's not bad for the first 50 squares...then it starts to get a tad old...

oh, we also hauled off some bags of leaves. i use some very loosely here. we have filled over fifty yard bags of leaves in the past few weeks. one of the main reasons we bought our house was the trees...ask me what i think about those trees now...!

this is the first section we conquered. the previous home owners kept their boat here. maybe we should have bought a boat instead of 4,000 lbs of sod...

first, you pick up thousands of rocks in the soil. note, there is no photo of this. most likely because i was doing it...

then you open up 500 bags of top soil and rake it in. ok, maybe not 500.

then you till the soil with a scary machine that i probably shouldn't have tried to operate...

then you water. then you water it some more.

now it's time to lay down your squares. when i say lay down i mean throw them down and hope they don't break because they are a bit too heavy to lay down...

then you trim off what you don't need. this is quite a tedious job for an anal outdoor grooming professional (ahem, cam).

then you water. then you water some more.

then your wife starts praying the neighbor will come home soon and make another offer to help. and your husband will graciously accept...

then things move much quicker and before you know it....GRASSSSSSSSSSSSS!

then, last but no least, you rent this thing...and you fill it with water and "roll" your sod down. and you smile, because you know you have now run out of sod.