Sod It!

I can't believe it. It's snowing. It's been snowing for about 24 hours, and the ground is covered with a fine blanket of whiteness. It's like I slept through Summer, and it's November again or something.

Jim and I have the weekend off, and we were going to start the first bit of our deck project: we need to rent a sod-cutter and take away the grass from part of our yard so we can put gravel under the deck. I also want to remove the grass from the last third of our yard so Sprout and I can garden this Summer. But with snow on the ground, I think we're going to have to amuse ourselves differently. Unless we want to make an igloo...

I think that if I get my hands on a sod-cutter, it's going to be TOO MUCH FUN - sort of how I feel when I get my hands on a Sausal. Cut it! Cut it all! De-turf the whole yard! De-turf the neighbour's yard! Yay! "This is the police. Put the turf-cutter down, Ma'am. Put it down now." "I caaaaan't!!! I don' wannnaaaaa!!!!"

Jim is putting me through deck-building school, so I can check all his math. I'm starting to realize how many details there are to think about, and why he spends every evening on the back porch building decks in his head. We have decided to bite the bullet and build the decking out of cedar.

We were going to do the whole deck and whole fence out of treated lumber (substantially cheaper), but someone gave us a bunch of info on the carcinogenic properties of treated lumber (e.g. active ingredient, arsenic!). I can't bear to think about the Sprout crawling around on treated lumber now, not to mention myself. We're still going to do the fence and the underneath deck supports out of treated wood, but anything that Sprout can crawl on will be safe. And cedar smells so good, which is a perk.

But we ain't starting anything this weekend, that's for sure.