Lets break stuff!

As we were working in the yard today we had to stop for a moment and laugh at how this weekend has gone down. We've been working in the yard on a big project (removing a huge landscaped area with a pond and turning it into a poolside patio...eventually). The process has been extremely labor intensive. From moving hundreds of pounds in lava and marble rock, to digging up tons of dirt, removing the retaining wall that the previous homeowner installed to withstand more wear than the Berlin wall, digging up trees, and shrubs, and plants, and the list just goes on and on.

On Saturday my husband was helping me remove the spruce trees from this landscaping and he broke our spade shovel. It was pretty old and since we are the kind of people that leave their yard tools out overnight...or all summer long, these things are bound to happen. He decided to just use the flat shovel and we'd go buy a new spade after lunch. You can see where this is headed, right? He takes a few good shovels full of dirt out of the raised bed and...snap...yep. 2 shovels down!

So we decided this was a sign to break for lunch. After lunch we headed out to the hardware store to shop for shovels. I was pretty excited because we got some really nice coated ones with a 5 year guarantee. I know it may seem odd for a girl to be excited about some shovels, but I take yard work pretty seriously, and good equipment makes me happy!

The rest of our Saturday was fairly uneventful. We woke up late this morning and were sort of in a scramble to get outside and beat the heat. Unfortunately the coffee pot was wounded in the morning rush. We just don't function well w/o our morning coffee, and this meant an emergency trip to the store. I seriously don't think my husband could have dug a single hole without some java. We usually buy cheap coffee pots, but he's been pining for a brew station. I personally do not care as I think coffee is coffee, and will drink whatever caffeine filled black stuff you could pour.  He came home with his shinny new brew station and we headed out to get to work! LOOK! No glass pot to break! (ignore the morning breakfast mess!)

By this point our weekend has cost us about $60. OUCH! We needed to have an uber productive day. I took a few loads of dirt down to the lake to fill in the spot where our old garden bed is located and you would know that the wheel barrow, which was already cracked, just kept breaking off pieces. It got so bad that eventually it had no front to the bucket!

So after lunch we headed back to the wallet robbing hardware store. My hubs had been also pining for a fancy Gorilla cart. He told me it was nice because it was on 4 wheels, and the bed tilted to make for easy dumping. As an added plus it would carry 600 lbs, and we could attach it to our tractor for the really heavy loads.

I was pleased to see that the cart he coveted was marked $79.99. Still a lot more expense than a new wheel barrow, but truth be told I cannot push more than a half filled wheel barrow because of my arthritis, and since I am the one who loves to work outside I took this into consideration.

I also liked the idea that I could pull our toddler around in it, and the tractor pulling ability sounded really nice on those "I feel weak" aka lazy days. So we headed to the check out lane with our new Gorilla cart and low and behold it rang up for $ 57.95! Not much more than the wheel barrow after all, and while the expense was not expected, it stung a little less.

We got a lot of work done today with the new tools and cart. Lets hope we can make it the next 5 hours without breaking anything else!