Summertime excavation is over

A post to bid adieu to the great excavation project of the summer of 2008. Removing an old apple tree stump to make way for a baby plum revealed a thick layer of asphalt underneath a more modern (less stone - more tar) thin layer. In the end, it would be fit to say that significant portions of the front yard were dug-up and stripped of their bedding of asphalt. The goal grew, when spirits were high and the summer young, to clear the yard of all asphalt. Somewhere between 2/3 and 3/4 became the acceptable compromise. The 4:45 sunsets of the week past also had bearing on after-work pursuits.

Rice was able to line-up a paving company already working on a commercial job around the corner. If not for the good fortune of our proximity, we would have been waiting until spring to rid ourselves of our rubble pile. It was time to cut the losses on the stone-aged excavation project and re-level the yard - no small task given the volume of matter removed. In the end, the yard will be healthier, and my accounts of the great rock pile will see its mass be described by increasingly lofty synonyms for girth.

Knowing the effort that created the pile, it was nice to see that it took a team of men and a bobcat to dispose of the sweat of my brow. Good bye pile. You sure as hell won't be missed.