Waiting for Rocks

We, meaning Robert, are in the middle of a new project and I thought I would share the progress so far. We had some shrubbery (I don't know what kind) on most of our hill, in the back yard, by our driveway. Some people might think, hey - it's an evergreen, no tending needed, leave it alone. To me, I didn't like it, not one little bit. And after a few, ok - many, "explorations" by the kids and "tennis ball searches" by Izzy, it became spotted with holes and dead branches. And, being in the only spot of the yard that gets sun all day long, it was the perfect spot for a garden. So what do you do? Pull it all out and terrace it!

This is what it looked like.
These two pictures are from when we moved and I'm SO glad we put in sod last year, the grass looks so much better now!

Here we, meaning Robert, have cleared about 2/3 of the hill (although I did help by pulling up and cut the branches into smaller sizes for burning). We had a good burn day and once we got burning Robert just finished clearing the hill.

Here are the stairs along the side, we will fill in the space between the stairs and the house with smaller rocks.

The top terrace is done and the second one is being worked on.
There is still a bunch of work to do.
We, meaning Robert, is now waiting on rocks. This weekend he is hoping to gather some more (thanks to Larry and Casey who don't want a ton of rocks in their yard) and if the kids will cooperate I can help bring up dirt. We have beautiful dirt in the woods where trees have died and their stumps/roots have disintegrated and have left large mounds of rich soil. So other than grunt work, meaning Robert (he wants to make sure I acknowledge his efforts) - this has been a cost free project.

We can start planting in March and I'm totally excited to utilize Georgia's two growing seasons! The kids are excited to pick out what we will plant (I hope they stay as excited to help pull weeds) and Alyssa wants to be in charge of flowers along the bottom.
Once it is completed I'll post pictures again.