Better than Crossfit

We were back at it this Saturday! Mom and dad came down from NH again and brought a heavy duty rototiller in the trailer. This time we also had help from our friends Matt and Lisa, they were superheroes I tell ya! I still can hardly believe how much they did yesterday and how hard they worked. The gave me such a gift!! I'm so grateful!

Since 40 Newman only had two off-street parking spots, and Arlington has an overnight parking ban, we needed to expand the driveway. Having a landscape comany come in and do this with a bobcat and trucks would cost thousands. There's only one other option, you guessed it, our own muscles. 

First we had to eliminate a 7 foot pile of brush and debris that we had built the first weekend we worked on the house. When we first cleared the jungle that was swallowing up the house, there was no where to put the junk we pulled up. Now it was resting right where we needed to excavate - let the disappearing act begin!

The town trash collector will take an unlimited amount of yard waste, as long as it's places in brown yard waste bags or bundled in three foot lengths. Lisa and I piled some of the stuff in my parents trailer to be sent up to the woods in NH. And what didn't fit, we chopped into three foot lengths, stacked in bunches on the driveway, and used packing tape to tie together. We had come up with a pretty good system by the time we could see the earth that was buried under the debris. 

 The whole front garden was completely rootbound, so first we pried up long snakes and whole carpets of tangled roots. We also had to pull up some large stumps from the front garden to prep for rototilling. The come-along worked well for this. Pulling a 100 pound stump out of the ground with human power is sadistically satisfying! 

Here's Lisa showing that stump who's boss! 

Then my dad fired up the rototiller. This machine is a beast! Once the large stumps and roots were removed, the rototiller could chew up any smaller stuff to make planting and more excavation possible. Seemed like there were two different reactons to this machine. 

But it worked well! And later my dad said the rototiller had belonged to my Grandfather (thanks PopPop!)

We started digging and made a wide square hole about 10 feet square in the back and about 4 feet wide and 20 feet long in the front. I will need to call a landscape supplier on Monday to have them deliver a yard of crushed stone to create the driveway extensions. I still will have to spread it!

This was one of the jobs I was most concerned about. I knew it was going to be hard, but having Matt and Lisa pitch in was extremely helpful. And of course my parents too. We pulled it off and I'm really proud of us! Now we are all limping and sore. It sure was a great workout!