Can you dig it?

Another pair of socks for the 52 pair plunge is done! These don't count for Summer of Socks, because I started them long before summer rolled around. They were "car knitting" for quite some time. I keep a small bag in the car with a small knitting project in it. This is very useful when I wind up somewhere that I have to wait. It has saved my sanity on more than one occasion. However, any project that winds up in that bag is worked on pretty sporadically while it's out in the car. And it has to be replaced when it's close to being finished. Imagine running out of knitting. I'd have to entertain myself without having something to do with my hands.

I'm kind of lagging on the knitting this week. This is because we are digging the Death Star Trench O' Drainage in the side yard. The Husband has decided that this will fix the water-in-the-basement-every-time-we-get-over-2-inches-of-rain-in-a-day problem. I'm hoping he's right, it makes a lot of sense. But I went to college so I wouldn't have to dig ditches. I suppose I could view it as aerobic ditch digging, or at the very least call it weight training.

We (and I use we in the very loosest term - I have not really done a lot of the digging here) started this exercise by renting a piece of equipment that I think is called a trencher. The Boy is shown operating this thing. It's apparently much easier to move around while the digging part (that's the technical term) is sticking up. Do you know that these things come with power steering? The next model down did not have power steering. Scary.

So renting this tool has made the digging easier. What it mostly does is loosen up the dirt and then dump it back in the trench, requiring one to follow along and remove the remaining dirt. Also, it does not like to dig out the rocks.

So today being Saturday, we are devoting the day to digging out the loose dirt and removing rocks. And then digging out more dirt and removing more rocks. My cunning plan was to go out early and dig for an hour or two, and then point out that it's pushing 90 degrees out there and we should perhaps resume later in the day when it's cooler.

Have I ever mentioned our neighbors? We have the best neighbors on planet Earth. They have 2 lovely daughters, who have grown up with The Boy, and they are in all but genetics brother and sisters. They are all charming and wonderful people, and we are beyond lucky to live next door to them.

They are also kind, helpful people. They have offered to come over and help dig this afternoon. Mrs. MarvelousNeighbor says that this will be far more productive than the trip to the gym she had planned. And Mr. MarvelousNeighbor and The Husband are always helping one another out with the major home renovation projects. So instead of showering and preparing for an afternoon of the normal weekend chores and errands, I am sitting here blogging, covered in sweat, and planning on heading back out in a little while. Because my mother did not raise me to let my neighbors work on my yard while I'm inside. Or grocery shopping. Or whatever.


DEATH STAR TRENCH

The photo of the trench here shows some 8 foot lengths of pipe that The Husband dropped in to make sure that the trench was reasonably straight. It is.

So I do not anticipate a lot of knitting time this weekend. I'll have to see if I can find any of The Boy's old X-Wing fighters. I think there might be an exhaust port down at the far end of that thing.