We have slate! (and about 18 pounds of dust)

I'm simply amazed our landscaping dudes don't wear masks - they've been cutting our slate solid over the last week and it is DUSTY! I mean freaking dusty, like plague of locusts, end of times, looks like someone had a all day flour-fight, dusty. Between the loud stone saw, the endless supply of dust and the cranked "Santana" playing all day long, our poor neighbors must hate us. But, it will all be worth it when our backyard is glorious.

The guys have been working so hard - it took them all week to cut, place and stick down (yah, I don't know the technical terms, suck it) the slate. First they started by placing 12x12's around the border of our courtyard...and then they started sawing the huge chunks into random pieces. It's been fun watching it all come together like a big puzzle.
It's all monochromatically dust colored right now, but they rinsed a tiny section off (which was clean for all of 2 minutes, I swear) and we got a glimpse of how beautiful it's going to be:
And, voila! It's all stuck down and waiting for grouting. They need to re-do a few pieces that cracked too, we were laughing about this particular gem. It's hard to see but there is a hairline crack throughout the whole thing and a big pacman shaped broken piece at the left edge. Someone had the genius idea to "fill it in" with a tiny piece and needless to say, it looks like poo. That one's going. heh heh, nice try.