Concrete Haul

Cleaning up the yard debris but trying to straighten out some trees. There is ALWAYS work to do on the trees.

The weather has been….unseasonably warm for May and early June. In fact, I can’t remember a “spring” this hot. Most days have been in the 90s. I think it has caused quite a bit of difficulty with planting and gardening.

This year I am skipping a garden. Last year’s Jurassic weeds, coupled with my ever-worsening asthma made the garden project dismal. Not only did very little grow because of the weeds I couldn’t keep up with, but I was not enjoying any of it.

I remain mostly indoors, except on the many miles Gus and I like to walk…although the heat has been cutting into them quite severely so far.

Of course, the other factor is that I’ve recently opened a Music School in town with a vocal instructor. Which has been wonderful and exciting and actually really much more fun than stressful! But that also means I’m dedicating a year of my life to being as frugal as possible (which is hilarious considering I’m not a big spender to begin with). It’s small potatoes. But it has taken up most of the spring I would have spent prepping the garden and the upfront money one needs to get a garden going.

Tyler, on the other hand, has hit the ground running! Or, perhaps hit the tractor….uh….tractoring.

img_5197-1 — Near the end of the concrete haul. You can see at this point he was down to a shovel and his sifter. Gus likes to help and ends up in practically all my photos.

Besides the basic yard and field mowing, weed-eating and never ending wood chopping; one of his first tasks was to clear the concrete pile.

Waaaaaaay back when he dug the giant hole to completely re-build the addition, he jackhammered the concrete slab that was broken and wonky. Those pieces of concrete, along with the large stones that we took out of the stone wall in the basement on the side of the addition, were pilled into a rather large hill by the little shed.

This fall, we had a community member come take most of that rock to use in their landscaping. But the concrete is a different matter. After almost four years of growing weeds and being an excellent home for garter snakes, it was looking pretty un-stylish.

Despite the 90 degree heat and Iowa humidity, Tyler used shovels, the tractor and his handmade shifter to go through the pile of concrete and dirt until it was gone.