The Annika Enclosure

       By far the largest undertaking for the 2018 Backyard Renovation was the creation of the Annika Enclosure. The Northeast quadrant of the backyard had historically been occupied by a messy and overly productive grapefruit tree. It required alot of water, was slowly becoming infested with termites, and made more shitty grapefruits than I could eat in a lifetime. Additionally, you really couldnt do anything else over there. It was just a tree, it took up space, that was it. It was too low to walk under comfortably and wasnt well positioned to provide any appreciable shade. It had kinda become a collecting ground for stuff I didnt know what to do with. Grass didnt grow well there, and it was alot of yard that was just dead space.

So the operation began, I could have had Jose yoink the whole thing out, Probably in 30 minutes, for $20, without breaking a sweat. But i was having fun and id just canceled my gym membership, so I kept at it. Worked on it about 45 minutes per night after work, for acouple weeks. eventually i got it widdled down to a nice little stump which I was then able to dig out of the ground. Ended up burning up anything worth burning. But ive still got most of that stump sitting in front of the house, waiting for the next bulk pickup. Anyway, once that fucker was out, I had a clean slate. 

So, we werent going to just keep truckin with a dirt lot. I could have found a way to have fun with that, but Christi and Annika were not going to be big fans. We decided artificial turf was gonna be the way to go. We shopped around ALOT. Quotes were mostly over 5k and most places werent going to touch our brick border unless we paid extra. It was starting to look pretty glum. As usual Jose saved our ass, he asked if we had found anyone to install the turf yet and volunteered his services. He also mortared in all the brick and relocated some irrigation lines. All for several thousand dollars less than the next nearest quote and all in a single day. Jose is a badass. Seriously. My real live hero. They should make a movie about him. 

Fence came next, to separate doggles from clean, expensive grass. That came from Home Depot in pre-made sections. Trump Enterprises installed the fence. They make the best fences. Tremendous, amazing fences. You have never seen such a great fence. Really great fences. With big hands. ( I actually installed the fence, it went pretty smoothly and took a morning.)

       So that was that. Annika loves it, its way better looking, and its great to chill by the fire or grill or garden while the wee child frolics in the emerald glade. And no dog poop. Love not having dog poop there. like a whole section of yard that is relatively clean. you can roll around in it. Its just great. Doesnt feel exactly like real grass, but lets not kid ourselves here, real grass isnt exactly without its own faults.