Oh my sod
Finally, three days after laying sod my body has finally recovered. I can honestly say our Saturday of landscape work has been the most rigorous workout I have experienced in a long time. When we first moved into the new house back in October, we inherited a side yard that I liked to call the “red sea”. It was an area in the yard that the builder tried to seed, but the seed didn’t take. Rather, it left a large open area of red clay.
Since we moved in we’ve been anxious for the Spring to arrive so we can finally wash this red sea away. This past weekend was the planned “sod party”, and OH was it a party…
The event began at 1:00am Saturday morning. Yup, we didn’t expect to be awoken to the sound of a flatbed truck outside out house in the middle of the night, but sure enough…there it was. We were told the sod would be delivered at 7am Saturday morning. The truck driver was told 7pm Friday night. So why 1am in the morning, you ask? Well, in an attempt to arrive at 7pm, the driver set out from South Georgia late in the afternoon Friday, and didn’t make it far before his transmission begin giving him trouble. There he sat on the side of the road for FOUR hours waiting for a tow truck. To make matters worse, he had his 5 year old son in the passenger’s seat thinking he would get some good father/son bonding time in.
The tow truck finally came to give the truck driver a hand, and soon enough he was off again…headed to Forsyth County 5+ hours late. Now, any of you who have been to our neighborhood know that we’re almost a mile into the subdivision. That mile consists of some turns and hills — turns and hills that a flatbed truck carrying 18 palettes of sod doesn’t appreciate. Sure enough, the grinding gears and screeching tires at the front of the neighborhood caused an unhappy neighbor to file a noise complaint with the police. That poor driver — that’s the last thing he needed.
At 1:00am our doorbell rang. In a foggy confusion, Chase checked the window by the door and sure enough, he muttered, “Ali, sod’s here.” I was at a loss for words. It’s 1 in the morning! But there we go, headed outside to watch 18 palettes of sod stack up on our curb. Two of our neighbors heard the truck as well, and stayed outside with us during the delivery. Let the party begin.
7am rolled around…when the sod was supposed to be delivered…and Chase began laying each puzzle piece of sod. His dad, brother, friends and neighbors joined within a few hours, and things took off. Our yard was beginning to look beautiful! ”Instant grass”, Chase said.
Hours later of laying, edging, patching, rolling, and laying more sod, the side yard was done! We still had two and a half more palettes. We can’t let that precious sod go to waste, so we started on the side yard (another area that needed a fresh coat of grass). Needless to say, by the end of the day we were exhausted.
We were unbelievably blessed that the rain held off long enough for us to finish, and even more blessed that the rains came down the next day to water our new green carpet outside :) Today we’re just hoping everything stays in place, the roots take, and we’ll have a yard to play in this summer!
