Backyard Ballet

No one appreciates watching an artist at work more than I. This artist, however, was not using a brush or a pen, he was using his backhoe. That's right - he is what I am calling a blue collar artist. He is one with his machine and watching him work was a joy. He takes pride in his work and he had the trust of his young helper (Dan). They worked together well as a team and proved to me that there is "beauty" in the simplest of things.



Then came the "mack daddy" of the crew. He has accomplished something that no other driver would attempt. He backed his single axle dump truck into my backyard. The overhang from my roof did not bother him at all - along with the guidance from the others he backed in, dumped his load (right in front of my small shed) and drove out without scratching the house. Left ruts, however, because the ground was wet. Another "artist" displaying his talents.



Shed survived each time (six in all) stone was dumped - a total of 55 tons of them and they all disappeared into the trench that they dug in my back yard - nine foot deep and 55 feet long. The stone filled up 6 foot of the trench by the time they were done.



They collapsed my dry well and filled it in (using the dirt they dug out from the trench) and then they smoothed everything out - making sure that all the rocks were picked up and the ruts from the dump truck were filled up. They planted grass and covered it with hay. Most of my back yard and a small portion of my front yard is now hay covered, but that is okay. It is going to be in much better shape than before this job was started. No more uneven ground or small dips to trip in. An expensive way to get landscaping done, but will be worth it in the long run.

My thanks and appreciation go out to these "true blue collar artists" - without whom I would be in deep *&%$ as the saying goes.

The only mishap during this whole procedure was when they picked up a piece of cast iron pipe laying in the backyard (they are going to recycle it). They found out the hard way that bees had claimed it as a home and were not too happy with the fact that their home was suddenly mobile. They were not happy campers. The pipe was dropped when Dan realized what was happening (by this time he was almost out of the backyard) and my "backhoe artist" promptly covered it with a big load of dirt. It was later recovered and taken away without any further incident.