Hey dad, come help me with a little project...

That's how it started on the phone yesterday.

First I just wanted to borrow his truck, then he said he would come help Adam and me on Saturday, then we decided we needed to get it done on Friday because rain is forecasted for the rest of the weekend. I told him that Adam was working but he figured we could do it ourselves...

So we began. The project was to remove the big brick slab in the backyard and some branches from off the bushes I trimmed. The previous owners installed the brick patio before they had a back porch. This is where they kept their bbq and table, etc. We have since built on a porch and this area doesn't get much use. It is cracked, collects water and is a roach heaven. We also wanted more grass area for playing so it's got to go!


No, it's not just paving bricks installed with sand...they are cemented together...oh, so fun! First we had to break them apart...

Okay, grandpa broke them apart, Maura and I hauled the small pieces to the truck. Good thing Jonesy is tough!


Jonesy got the bigger pieces. There were quite a few we had to lift together!


Seriously, they were HEAVY! (He is making faces so I could get a good picture!)

We did find a lot of fun "squirmies" for Mookie to play with! She loves worms!


Colleen also came to help. She turned our pomegranate bush into a tree! Much nicer!

We loaded all the bricks, bushes (and other branches) into the trailer,

Then the rest into the truck.



We headed to the dump speculating how much it weighed. We didn't want to take two trips even though it seemed kind of heavy. You can see how low the truck is riding.

It didn't take long to unload at the dump (good thing 'cuz it was stinky) then on the way out they weighed us. YIPES!! 5,760lbs!!! Almost 3 tons on dad's 1 1/2 ton truck!!

So, the little project got a lot out of hand! It took us about 5 hours to do it all. Dad came at noon and after a snack we got to work and by 5pm we were back from the dump.

Adam was thrilled to see it was all finished by the time he got home from work now we will have to go to their house and help them with projects!

Thank you, thank you, thank you! We couldn't have done it without your muscles!!