12 Hours.

Saturday was kinda tiring. 7 am Daniel drove up which cued us to start working.

Uncle Phil had arrived during the night and camped out on the living room floor...although it was kinda loud outside...

So, we had a giant backhoe dig a huge hole in our backyard and then we decide to fill it back up half bucket full by half bucket full. :P Even with 11 people (give or take a few at various times) we only got it halfway filled in 12 hours.

 The man in charge!

 Dan the backhoe man... ;)

 So, it was 90* out... we took a few breaks. Gravel can be surprisingly comfortable to lay on.

 So, here's the gist of what we did. We painted tar on the wall. Then we hug two HUGE sheets of 6 mil plastic over the wall, then taped foam insulation boards over the plastic. We placed the pipe at the bottom of a slope (made from sand, roof insulation, and various car-part plastic wrappings left over from our move) and dumped gravel on top of it, 2 ft wide. Geo fabric was placed in between that and sand. We used plywood to keep the sand from getting dirty when we pushed mud into the hole, too. *exhales*

 Lunch breaks are also welcome. As are barbecue dinners. Provided by the gracious mother.

 Bucket by bucket...

 We'd fill a bucket, hand it down the line, dump it, throw it back. Notice the flying yellow bucket in the above picture.

 We worked into the night.

 My favorite job of the day was standing on the top of the dirt pile catching buckets and chucking them at the people filling them again. Surprisingly we only broke 4 handles! :)... and for the record, no people were hit, either.

 We were thankful to have our next-door-neighbor's grandsons & friends come help us out. And were were oh so thankful for Daniel, Chris, and Jacob, too. And Shane. And Savannah. :)

Emma and I had an absolute blast, despite being the most tired I have ever been. We've discovered new muscles never before known to the world of science... we're so sore! But, God is good and His love endures forever. He was so gracious to give us the strength to do what we did. :)

Oh, and thank you so much Uncle Phil for doing the dishes! It was a HUGE help! :)