digging a hole

Late Monday night we were still trying to get use to how the house looked without a porch, when a semi truck pulled up hauling the biggest piece of machinery we have ever had on the place. By the time they unloaded the thing I was a little sick to my stomach.

The feeling didn't go away really until it was back on its trailer Wednesday morning and pulling away. I couldn't help but watch as they ripped up the cement and dug the new basement even as it made me uneasy. I spent the morning transplanting tomato starts into larger pots and feeling the floor beneath me shake as he kept digging.

You know that line from the movie the 'Money Pit' "It looks like it was hit by a missile." That is now the state of our yard. If the porch coming didn't get comments from our neighbors the mounds of dirt and rocks did. A huge bulldozer had to come and push the dirt clear back past my chicken coop just to make enough room for the cement truck. In order to tend my animals I must walk around two mountains of dirt. Everyone assures me that it will all be put back in order.

All the workers were trying to be considerate of my garden, but it was soon apparent it was a lost cause. I am glad it was not tilled yet or better yet planted. Now the garden has a huge ramp of dirt to carry the cement truck in around to the south side of the hole. They were digging giant holes and I was digging up trees to move so they would be out of the way. I transplanted five trees and a few other plants to make room.

If you stand at my kitchen door you look over a huge hole and it amazes me how precise and careful the operator is with these powerful machines. I have never been afraid of heights but it does give you a weird sense of vertigo to be right on the edge of this hole when you are standing in your kitchen door.