My self-imposed sentence of hard labor is not over. The next phase of our backyard landscaping project involved a delivery of 20 tons of 3/8 inch minus coral granite on our driveway. This is everything that passes through the finest sieve at the rock quarry (folks in the know just call it “minus”), so it is pretty much sand.
Landscaping in arid Arizona should not involve grass (though many people try to replicate Midwest/ East Coast greens here). In the 7 years we have owned our house, we have had two deliveries of crushed granite and one of rounded “river rock” gravel that has been moved by wheel barrow front and back. Where has it gone? This latest effort is meant to provide a more level look to the back– because of poor drainage we could not extend much of our cement deck, so we needed a more porous surface.
So since the big pink pile was dumped Tuesday, my wife and I have spent 2 hours the last 2 nights shoveling and hauling sand. Our neighbor across the street mentioned something about “why break your backs? Just hire some guys at $10 an hour to haul it.” The remark has stuck with me– it’s not that we cannot afford to hire help, but we have this silly pride in doing work ourselves. Is that like some old Puritan work ethic? We enjoy the physical exertion, especially after a full day of desk jobs.
This has no direct relevance to anything blogged here, but then again, there is something to the “do it hands on” approach rather than taking the easy way out and just paying someone to do the work, be it tons of sand or technology.
Or not…. ask my back in a few days.
