What would we do without a pickup?

When I think about cars, I think about transportation.  Getting from point A to point B, preferably with a minimum amount of traffic, good music on the radio and wind in my hair.  I rarely give much thought to the hauling capabilities of cars, mostly since my little Honda doesn't haul much more than groceries or myself.  But pickup trucks?  That's a totally different ball game.  We've used the cab of this truck more in the past six months than ever before.  I really don't know what we would have done without it.  Between moving, hauling trash to the dump, bringing home ladders and lumber, a snowblower and lawn mower, this Chevy has definitely been pulling her weight - literally.

On Sunday, we decided to drive out to a local nursery to see what they had in stock by way of trees.  We were looking for a cherry blossom and a weeping willow - and they had both in stock.  I took one look at these tall trees, complete with pots laden with dirt and said to myself - no way are we getting these home ourselves.  They were easily eight feet tall.  We asked the kind folks at the nursery if they delivered and they sure did - to the tune of $50.  We mentioned that we had a pickup and found out that they use those to deliver the trees.  Turns out that they didn't have any fancy tree-delivering trucks (who knew?) so we figured why not save ourselves $50 and move them ourselves.  Fifteen minutes later, we were the proud new owners of two beautiful trees, secured in the bed of the truck with ropes and cables.  Happily, the trees arrived at their new home without incident.

Since they grow to be so large, we decided to plant the weeping willow waaaaaaaaay in the back of the yard.  The top of our driveway flows right into the back yard, which is very convenient for these occasions when driving the truck on the lawn makes life easier.

Step one - dig big hole in ground.  Step two - wiggle tree out of truck onto ground.  Step three - wiggle tree out of pot and place in ground.  Step four - wiggle tree into hole and fill with dirt, tree food and mulch.  Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, yeah!

The previous owners had a lamppost in this spot, so digging this hole wasn't quite as bad as the cherry blossom's hole.  Who would have thought that a weeping willow would be easier to plant than a cherry blossom?  Not this gal.

The sky wasn't looking so hot, but luckily the rain held off until we finished.  The back of the house definitely needs some TLC, don't you think?

Driving on your lawn does tend to leave not so pretty tire marks.  Its ok though, now da boyfriend has an excuse to mow the lawn again!  I wonder how long that enthusiasm will last?

Financially, we probably should have waited to spend the $250+ on these trees, but there's something very sweet about knowing we planted both during our first year in the house.

Just because he's that crafty, da boyfriend also made this patio.  Yes that's right, MADE it.  The previous owners had left quite a few paving stones about, so he laid them out all pretty like and crafted a make-shift patio.  Its not in the cards to build a real one this year, so this will be great in the meantime.

In the front yard, we had two large shrubs that weren't looking so hot.  Half the branches were dead, one was flopping all over the walkway and both looked very tired.  Plus they were also getting in the way of the lawn mowing (can't let that happen!) so they had to go.  Da boyfriend hacked away at them this afternoon, chopping off the branches until all that was left were the stumps.  Try as he might, he couldn't budge them.  What to do?  Chevy to the rescue again!  He tied a strap around the stump, secured it to the tow hitch and fired her up.  It took a couple tries, but he succeeded in getting that stump out of the ground and left the skid marks on the driveway to prove it.  A couple of tugs on the other stump and that was gone too.  I was so transfixed by this procedure that I forgot to grab the camera until it was over.    

Its partly the fresh spring air, but all I can think about lately is freshening up the house.  I love how things are turning out!