Playing in the dirt???

When I woke up Saturday morning, I was shocked when I saw about 8 large black circles on various spots on the lawn.

It turns out that they were mounds of rich, dark dirt placed in areas that weren't level.

I then realized that the yard people must have done that when they were here all day Friday working on my landscaping repair from my flood. Because of the damage that had been done to my yard, they had to put down large amounts of dirt to fill in the places that the plumbers, sprinkler system people, and the concrete guy had displaced.

Now, I know that one way to level bumpy spots on a lawn is to put a mixture of sand and dirt lightly on top of the grassy area that is not level. The rule of thumb is to only cover the area with about a half an inch of soil mixture...and, to allow the grass below to still come through.

Well, this was about 6 inches of heavy, dense soil that was pretty much killing the grass underneath!!!

So, I did what any normal person would do....I went totally crazy calmly decided that I needed to get that dirt off of there before I ended up having eight large dead grass areas...

So, I took the hose and began to "wash" some of the dirt away.

Big mistake! This just made it heavier and caused it to become compact and almost impossible to remove.

Undaunted and terribly frustrated determined, I got out my pitiful rake and began to try and remove the dirt.

Did I mention that the temps were in the high 90's and the humidity was off the charts?!?!

I did what I could...but, finally gave up as I stumbled into the house to take a shower and attempt to get the black dirt off of every (and I mean "every"!) part of my body...especially under my nails which looked kind of hopeless.

This morning I begged recruited Dave to help me finish the job. The two of us worked for about an hour and a half...finishing up with running the hose over the areas to remove the last signs of the dirt. Of course whoever was holding the hose acted on the temptation to totally spray the other person with water. We screamed, but, in all honesty, it really felt good.

Then, dirty fingernails and all, we jumped into the pool to cool off and soothe our aching bones.

When the yard people come this Thursday, we are going to have a little "chat" (ha!). I am going to express my discontent...and....I am thinking that, at the very least, they owe me a free manicure...