Yesterday, Kip (and the rest of his clan) came over and we finished Phase II of Project Better Back Yard. I'd already dug up quite a bit of the earth around the two posts. I was "thrilled" to find that just beside the post nearer the house, there was another post! It had probably been cut off before the still-there post was planted, but I was still gobsmacked. It had a much more reasonable base, only a few inches across, and the concrete was awful. I broke out most of it with a hand sledge.
Kip estimated that each concrete anchor for the remaining posts would weigh about four hundred pounds, and guessed that trying to remove them was just asking for trouble. I agreed. We dug out a small trench beside each anchor and laid them sideways and buried them about a foot underground. I'll have to make a note, on the deed, that future owners should beware. Maybe I'll just make a treasure map and hide it in the cistern in an antique scroll case.
Anyway, now the back yard is not totally flat, but it's all soil and grass on top, so the next step is to get a roto tiller, turn everything over, flatten everything out, and lay down new grass and plants. Hopefully that will happen in two weeks and then we'll have a yard that MJ can run around in and that won't be the second-worst eyesore among all the shared yards in our lot.
