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! :)

Hard Work

 ...continues! Tomorrow's our last day to get everything done!

 Thursday morning I woke up to the sound of the power/pressure washer being used by Emma.

 She had a blast.

 Nothin like smearing on sticky, sticky tar while sitting in deep mud! We had to reapply it today... in even deeper mud.

 We also got a load of gravel dumped on the driveway and re-worked how it drains.

 We had fun jacking up the porch where the dirt was excavated from underneath.

 And being so dirty and all, we're not allowed inside. Even during breaks. :(

 The rake approach taking too long, Caleb came to the rescue with his big orange tractor.

 Clean up is always a tedious task. Especially when mud, oil based paint, and tar are covering everything at once. Or when someone gets tar in your hair and you run out of tar remover.

 Daniel's done most of the back-hoeing, but Daddy's had his fun on it too.

This evening before the rain we put a second coat of THICK paint on the foundation.

We tried to dry it with a leaf blower, but it didn't do much. :( So, we quit for the night and had a yummy dinner of (Stouffer!) roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, and (Lingo!) green beans. With a side of (Howard!) plum jelly and biscuit muffins. Sure beat the pizza we had for the previous 3 meals, even if they were different kinds. Walmart, Snappy's, and homemade. :) Alright, work starts at 7 am tomorrow so I should go rest my weary head. :)

Big Things

We've been busy this week. Let me 'splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

We're re-doing a french drain around our house. So right now, our yard looks like this:

This is the view off the girls' balcony.

So, to tell this fine tale, I must begin.... with John picking up and delivering a Terramite (we call it the Termite)  backhoe to our house bright and early Monday morning.

He gave a quick how-to course and then left us to our own destruction.

The backhoe neatly parked in the back of the house, Grand Dude and Daddy make the war plans out back

and out front.

But then the dump truck arrived and let us know that this was really gonna happen.

Innocent bystanders hope the truck doesn't tip on out hill.

And then unsuccessfully attempt to protect our manicured grass from the clutches of the sand-man.

Others just smile and think of the sculpting possibilities.

And still others enjoy it as they should.

Monday Daddy and I made a trip to Lowe's in our lovely jingly jalopy.

I think this is Tuesday now. After Co-op classes, Daniel, Emma, Willa, Caroline and I spent 4 hours digging a trench through creek rock behind a retaining wall. I was thankful to take a break to learn the art of backhoeing.

We interupt this program to bring you two pictures of spidewebs Willa took yesterday morning. Ain't they purty?

Wednesday morning Mr. Wade Mastre arrived ready to dig.

And dig he did!

Didn't you know? We're staring a quarry.

Let me introduce you to Daniel. Dan the Backhoe Man.

He's pretty much indispensible and we're so thankful he's been able to be over here so much.

Willa and Caroline took a break from ditch digging to clean the kitchen and make chocolate chip cookies. Mmmm!

I ask you to now turn your attention to the white pipe in the bottom right corner of this photo. That would be our septic line...that they busted through....

We were oh so thankful that it was fixed before too many hours had passed. Flushing the toilet is kinda nice.

The filthy work crew.

The happy grand daughters with the Grandest of Dudes.

Finally after way too many man (er, and girl) power hours, the trench and pipe at the bottom we were trying to find are done and Willa was able to power wash the pipe clean. :)

Mr. Mastre and sons stayed to eat some pizza at the end of the day...

...although for some of us it'd be another two hours before we'd quit for the night. Elsie took this picture of Willa and me unloading garden hose to untangle and use to...

Powerwash the back wall! Unfortunately we ran into dozens of problems and our power washer decided to quit. The one we borrowed worked for a little while and then quit, too. Thankfully that one is working this morning, though. So, off for another day of really fun hard work! We're having so much fun. :)