Jul 27, 2015 3 min read

I have been on a roll recently as far as “project completion” is concerned, and I have set my eyes on some big ones by summer’s end. I have divided my list into two categories: those that are necessary and those I would like to complete. For the necessities, I can usually count on my husband’s help (except for plumbing). The things I want to complete often require some type of coercion.

Promising him his favorite dinner is all it takes, but during hay season, my “want to” projects drop out of his range of concern. And so it was with the mud in the yard.

For several years, we have had a wet spring pop up in our yard. Several times, we have believed we have pinpointed it, and paid to have it destroyed. The destruction entails tapping into the drain pipe carrying our cistern’s overflow to carry the excess from elsewhere away. It has worked – for a time – but eventually, the spring moves and the wet spot returns.

I have long wanted to dig a ditch up through the yard and fill it with gravel, giving the water an easy route to travel to the drain below.

With the wet summer we have had so far, the spot was really bad. When the lawn tractor got stuck in it this week, the project moved up from the “want to” to the “necessary” list.

My son and I began Friday evening. Armed with a digging bar, clam buckets, a couple of picks and two shovels, we began chipping away at the yard.

At first, it was easy going. The drain that I followed was only about 18 inches below the surface, and the ground was soft. We dug for two hours and had gone several feet. I was bolstered by our early success.

Saturday morning was hot as we traversed back to the hole. I was fairly limber and still somewhat excited about the project. My son was over the whole thing, but stuck with me and only somewhat begrudgingly went for water when I needed it. We dug for about six hours over a 10-hour period, me having to stop to rest – and eat – more than I had figured. But we reached where we wanted to be by quitting time and found a spot where the water was gushing into the new ditch.

Sunday after church, I was determined to finish. My son had abandoned me to ride with his dad, so I was on my own. I made the turn to the wet spot and dug some more. The ground was softer there, so I had hoped it would be easier to dig, but I had not accounted for the weight and the stickiness of the mud.

I also had not accounted for having very little strength left in my arms.

Finally, after a couple hours of slipping and sliding in the muddy ditch, I completed it. Three feet deep for the most part, it was a textbook ditch, square all the way to the bottom. It was ready for gravel.

All the coercion my husband required this time was to see the exhaustion on my face. He grabbed the skid loader and begin filling the ditch. In under 30 minutes, he had filled in what had taken me about 12 hours to empty. We finished and went to the house.

And now we wait to see if it even worked. I’ll keep you posted.

Laura Zoeller can be reached at zoeller5@verizon.net.