I think I would prefer an axe of any size over a mattock so maybe you can borrow one before buying. My mattock would just bounce off of large roots. I have never seen root guard but the contractor said he wants to use as little as possible because it is expensive. It sells by the foot so must be at least a little flexible. The Hi-Lift jack is one used by off roaders and there will be many pictures of them on Google. In some off road situations, you would be really glad you brought one along and they have many uses in addition to jacking up vehicles. It would not be good for very many cars although I got my Camaro out of a rut in Wyoming many years ago. The alternative walk for help was not very appealing in my location at the time. My Hi-Lift is the four foot high model and has done everything I asked of it. There are some knock-offs offered by Harbor Freight and others but if buying one again, I would still go for the real thing. I finally gave away my large tiller after owning it for 30 years. It seldom got used after I bought my Mantis because my entire yard had been tilled deep. I would not hurry to buy a Mantis either because I doubt that they are suited to all situations. A wrecking bar is a bar of steel about six feet tall (approx) and about an inch or so in diameter. They are really useful sometimes. When I bought my house, we had a bed of Bird of Paradise plants and I liked them until my wife wanted to move them. After finally getting those things out of the ground, they went into the garbage. A neighbor offered me a giant Bird of Paradise once as long as I dug it up. I dug for a while and got nowhere so it is still in his yard. I don't want one that bad. Bamboo is also something that I would never put in my yard after removing all that were left to me by the previous owner of my house.

No offense to hoovb, but yeah, Jean, I was waiting for someone to say something. It's a lot of work, trying to clean up all the "dirt" around here. It's an overwhelming task. It's like steppin' into "uncomposted manure", at times... Speaking of, Grandma, who would be 102 today, said that when she was a young girl, she'd go out and squish her bare toes on a cold morning in warm cow paddies. She also told me that when she was a child, her grandma told her that the Devil had laid her out on a stump, and the sun had hatched her. I used to think she was for real. Turns out, I started learning about biology, and that it was impossible for a mammal, like we are, to be hatched from an egg. And then I learned about the platypus. M

I have the same conditions only a little further north than you. I would never let the Hoopsii be the only blue spruce. Scatter some others around and tie the color theme together. I have 9 different cultivars of P. pungens in my yard and it isn't much bigger than yours. I have a 1/2 acre lot but that includes the horse barn and corral out back. Use one or two globes and perhaps a columnar blue spruce. I love 'St. Mary's Broom'. I have Picea pungens 'The Blues' and love it's weeping form. It will never get too big. I have a pendula out front and a little P. pungens 'Blue Pearl' in the same bed echoing the color theme as an accent. There are also a number of cultivars of P. omorika that won't get too big for your yard. Check out Coenosium Gardens web site for a wealth of ideas for the smaller yard. Much of what you find there will not be found locally though. You should be able to find what I mentioned above except perhaps 'Blue Pearl' or 'The Blues' Picea abies has an almost endless range of sizes and forms. I too covet the Skylands but have been afraid to give it a try with our dry heat in the summer and burning sun. If you try it I would certainly put it in an area where it isn't going to get full sun at least while getting established. I have put a P. abies 'Gold Drift' under a globe willow that will eventually come out -in hopes that it can get established in the shade and then show off it's gold color after the willow comes out. There are also some golden junipers that would work for you. The northern Utah nursery that I have found to have the best selection of the less common conifers is Alpine Gardens in Perry (south of Brigham City) but that is also a little hit and miss.

My 2 beds are raised 8-12 inches and dug out another 2 feet deep. Then I sifted the red Virginia clay with a 1/2 inch screen stretched over 2x4s and blended in peat & homemade compost. (I know what your thinking, clay cannot be sifted). It must be at just the right moisture level and it takes a lot of effort. I turn in about 200 lbs. of homemade compost both spring & fall to keep them from reverting back into 2 giant bricks. I use lots of mower chopped pine needles in my compost because they take long to fully decompose, they help lower my ph slightly and they are free. I use a drip system but I only water in the evening because the birds come and pig out on my worms if I water in the AM. Earthworms are my best friends. I use a garden fork rather than a rototiller, as I feel a machine might throw to much soil out of the beds and kill to many worms. I also use a method called double digging. It involves taking some soil out of one end of the bed and replacing it at the other after breaking up the subsoil. Clay takes a lot of work initially, but maintenance is fairly easy after the second year.