May 6, 2007
in which digging and cursing is interrupted by children
We made the first move this weekend on reclaiming our back yard orphaned outside of the fence. The 6 or 7 neighbor children from across the alley found our work out there to be *fascinating*.
We’re building a retaining wall to be able to level out the back of the yard, basically following out some handy directions from Ace hardware. We dug the channel for and poured the footer over the past few days. The digging was a real task, all clay.
2 of the 7 or so visiting children
The kids from one of the houses across the alley kept coming over in a swarm and were full of questions, mostly the same one over and over” “What are you doing? What’s that? What are you doing? What’s that? What are you doing? What’s that? What are you doing? What’s that? That looks like poop. What are you doing? What’s that? and so on. They clay was fun for them to squoosh and then they could throw it. 3-year-old “Little James” was throwing it at me while I was digging and I had to make him leave.
In addition to the fun of the digging, we had fill dirt delivered on Friday to level out the yard where it slopes down to the alley. Between the digging and the fence is a huge pile of clumpy red and brown dirt. You can see where this would be a compelling attraction to your average candy-hyped kid.
Damn the Clay!
We’ll be digging and pouring a footer soon, but to turn our neighbor’s dog off digging under the new fence we install. Anyone worked a trench through clay and maple roots? Recommended power tool?
“What are you doing? What’s that?”
Ha! Don’t you just *love* children?
Brenda- Pick up a trencher from your local rental place. It’ll make your job go much faster.
When we bought our old house (pre 1920 bungalow) the first thing i did was install a privacy fence. I have an 11 year old daughter and I’m no scrooge but every kid in the area was in the back yard on the tree(pulling on my branches @#$#@!!) or cuttiing through the yard after school.
Hey ya gotta do what ya gotta do, and i did it quickly!! Take care….
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