can we play now?

although we purchased our home nearly 1 year ago now, we rarely spent any time in our back yard. probably because it used to look like this:

for the past month now, we've been working on removing the old, cracked concrete and the dead, fox tail-ridden yard.

first thing we did was rent a kaboda. ray used this thing for an entire weekend, ripping out the concrete and then removing the dead grass, rototilling and then leveling the yard.

the following couple of weeks were spent leveling and grading the yard some more and then installing irrigation.

then, because we are infested with gophers and moles, we decided to roll out some rodent wire before laying our sod. there will NOT be any dirt hills in our yard - may god help those poor suckers if they manage their way through.

lastly, instant grass! oh how i love sod!

now we just have to wait 10 days until dylann can invite her friends over to run and play in our new back yard - but she asks every day, "can we play now?"