At the Farm

Today we picked up the sod. We got 6 pallets or 2400 sq. feet or about 15,000 lbs. of grass. The farm was 1 1/2 hours away. Delivery charges were outrageous so we opted to pick up our own. The price per roll was great, though, so way worth the drive.

Allen went to the rental place first thing to get the tiller again. We also chose to rent a flatbed trailer with a ramp to try and make the unloading process easier. Plus, our trailer is only rated for 5,000 lbs. and we had a 7500 lb. load for each trip.

I woke up early and put dinner in the crock pot, did dishes, laundry and made sure things were somewhat organized for LaNell. She watched Lexi all day so that we could get the sod and Allen could keep working while I went back for the second load. As soon as I got my chores done, we left at 8:30 to head to the sod farm.

Ta da! Doesn't the yard look great? (We wish! Hopefully, our lawn will look just like this when we're done, though.)

They cut the sod once you arrive so we were there about an hour. Allen and I had decided if the operation was pretty decent, I would go back alone for the second load. The drive home was uneventful. The unload process, however, posed some challenges.

We had to pull the first pallet of the first load off of the side of the trailer. For the rest of the pallets, we used chains to hook the pallets to the fence while I pulled forward and they slid off of the back. Those pallets stayed nice and stacked. In the end, the fence was still standing and the lawn was off of the trailer so we were happy. As soon as we were unloaded, I took off again for the farm. It was about 1:15.

The first load. We got one more just like it.

I called the farm when I left our house so they could cut the rest of our order before I arrived. While loading the sod, they broke the first pallet (closest to the truck). The last pallet had been loaded poorly so the sod was leaning. We strapped it all down and it seemed like all would be well. About 5 miles from the farm, I stopped to tighten the ratchets. I had a prompting to re-do the straps. I ignored it and got on the interstate.

The way home is through some mountains and they are doing construction so it's not a super smooth ride. Just as I get to ABQ, I see that that last pallet is coming off of the trailer. The sod is tipping over and I'm pretty close to dumping about 1/2 of the pallet on the freeway. I pulled over and called home to let Allen know I'd be late. The "bad roll" was near the bottom of the stack, so I had to take most of the rolls off and re-stack them by hand. The guys at the farm had done a terrible job strapping everything down, too. In order to make it all work, I realized we were going to have some casualties and had to leave 4 or 5 rolls on the side of the road. I could then re-stack the thing in such a way that it would probably make it home. After getting every one situated and putting the straps back on, all rode quietly and I got home around 4:30.

At home, unloading the second load was a beast because of the leaning tower of grass and broken pallet. After a lot of brainstorming and some "go! go! go!" accompanied by flooring the gas, we got the pallets off of the trailer. The sod did not stay stacked through the process so we have rolls of sod littering most of the yard (looks a lot like the first pallet, but this time, it happened to all 3). But, it's here!

Allen was able to pressurize the sprinkler lines, fill in trenches, and finish tilling while I was gone. Tomorrow, Allen has to rake, roll and then we can plant. We called around to see if we could get some help for this weekend, but only 2 guys could come. We found out Wednesday they probably can't come. So, that leaves Allen and me. We also just find out that Allen has to go to work early Sunday morning again, too. He also teaches the lesson in EQ on Sunday. No rest for the wicked, right?

Thank goodness LaNell is here and so willing to watch Lexi. I'm not much help when it comes to heavy lifting, but if I couldn't have gotten the rest of the load today, Allen would have never gotten the ground ready. I am so grateful I know how to hook up, back up and drive a trailer. What a blessing for the type of work we've been doing. We are pretty tired, and very intimidated by the amount of work we have left to punch out tomorrow. However, if we can just push through, the worst of it will be over! And, we'll have a great yard for lots of years to come.