By the week of July 20th, our lot had dried up enough for the "worker guys" to come and complete the grade work, seeding, fertilizing and blow the straw on our land. The boys were super excited to have a bulldozer AND a bobcat at the house for four whole days! They spent a lot of time with their noses pressed to the windows, running around the house from room to room following them as they worked, and trying to do exactly what they were doing with their own bulldozers, shovels, and hoes. Needless to say, it was a fun four days, and Heath and I were excited to finally see some progress on the land around our house. We were tired of the dirt and mud, even though the boys didn't seem to mind one bit.

Here's B checking out the bulldozer working in the backyard. The "worker guys" got a kick out of seeing the boys every day following their every move.

Here's the backyard after they finished leveling it and spreading the topsoil.

And here's the side yard. Over there on the other side of the bulldozer is where Heath and the boys have their corn and salt lick spread out -- to attract the deer. I was in charge of reminded the "worker guys" to be careful and not run over it.

Here's the driveway and front yard.

This is looking down the driveway and down the hill to our sycamore tree.

Yes, there was one more dirt pile left (and there still is). They left it here so Heath could use it to backfill around the retaining wall that he'll put in. The boys were loving that there was one dirt pile left.

Now for the sad part of this blog. Like I said, all week long the guys worked in the heat making the place look great. Thursday morning they spread 400 lbs of seed and 600 lbs of fertilizer. They had the front yard covered in straw, and decided to call it a day around 4:00. Right after they left, the sky got dark, the wind picked up, and we got over 2 inches of hard rain in less than a half hour. Yes. Cash and I watched as the rain dug our ruts in the topsoil and washed the seed, fertilizer and topsoil down the hill. We were devastated. Here are some pictures that I took with my cell phone.

It was quite the storm, and even blew open our back door twice. It completely freaked Cash out (Baylen was asleep the entire time), and I had to move our couch in front of the door. Thankfully, no one was hurt and we had only a large limb down in the yard. The road leading to our street, though, had lots and lots of huge trees blown over, even some across the road. (I'll post some pictures of that soon.)

The guys came back later the next week, and they tried to fix the ruts and smooth it out again. Some grass had started to come up, but they sowed more seed on the whole place. *sigh* Maybe one day we'll have some nice green grass for the boys to play in...