Reality Check
Yesterday as I was coming back from my walk, I decided to take a detour from the county road and cut through the backyards of our area. As I came upon the far east end of our original lot, I stood still and looked, and looked and looked. Dennis is very particular about our property. Nothing leaning against the garage walls, no piles of limbs that have fallen or blown off the huge Maple. When lawn mowing season hits, he wants to make sure we are tidy. Bless his heart.
As Dennis does spend a lot of time in the garage porch, his view of the backyard is very present. A shady yard means that grass has a challenge. Wanting to have our backyard look as nice as the front yard, Dennis felt it was time for some serious work to be done. That serious work would entail having the backyard tilled and replanted. We spoke to a worker bee about the possibilities of having that work done as soon as the soil was of a good temperature and dry enough to till. There was talk about the amount of grass seed and also the variety of seed for a shady lawn. A packer could be rented from the hardware store and heaven knows we have plenty of hose to keep the new seeds moistened. That was a far as the plans got as it was only the end of March.
As I mentioned, today I stood at the far end of that back lawn and looked. What our backyard really needs is about four dump trucks of dirt to bring it to a good grade for drainage when we have heavy rains. I tentatively broached the subject with Dennis at supper. We keep the backyard very tidy and it has a lot of eye appeal as the perennials show themselves. Yes, there are some spots of good grass and then there are some pretty sparse areas. And . . . it is all ours.
What does our backyard harm is standing water. Does that happen often? Being a low lot to begin with, more times than I can remember. In times past this entire subdivision was a pasture. 
Homes were moved onto lots that had been plotted, ours being one of them. Topography had little attention. Stauffer Avenue, which by city maps, is labeled as an alley; 20 feet wide. It is much wider now as traffic has a way of blowing out the boundaries. Stauffer Avenue continues to be built up year after year by the city. It really needs to have a field cultivator come and work it up and then put down the final finish. I know the extent that it has been built up as in years past during fast spring thaws there would be water making its way in the car garage and the tires would be frozen down. Dennis contacted a local contractor and they raised the garage off of the foundation and added a ten inch cement block to the existing foundation. Problem fixed. Well guess what? Stauffer Avenue is now again level with the garage on the south side and none of the ten inch block is visible. Stauffer Avenue to rising.
The moral of the story is that we will continue keeping our backyard up as best we can and live with the reality that, given the enjoyment we received from the backyard, we can contend with it as it is. Let’s be real. Dennis is 80 and I am 73, this in time to come will be someone else’s problem. Sometimes you have to accept rather than expect.