All in the name of a well manicured lawn.

Yesterday started early and ended late. I woke up about 7:00 a.m. (I know that's not that early...but wait for the rest of it) and got ready to go pick up the trencher that would dig out the lines for our sprinkler system in the back yard. When I got there I saw all the other poor suckers that were renting various big equipment for spring cleaning/home improvement. I went to the desk to get the unit that we had reserved. When they showed me what we had reserved I was a little dumbstruck. This thing was tiny. It couldn't have weighed much more than me and it was supposed to chew through the bedrock that is our backyard. I was very concerned. When I had paid and was waiting to be loaded the guy who runs the show at Sun Rental came and asked me which one I was getting. I told him and he started to get a wild eyed concern on his face. Needless to say he upgraded me to the 800lbs behemoth that would eventually beat the stuffing out of me. I got it home and lined up with the area that was supposed to be the first run of our sprinkler lines. I wasn't into the project 10 minutes and I knew my day was shot. Every 10 inches of trench required me digging out huge rocks that the trencher couldn't dig out. By the time I had reached the end of the first quarter of the first of three lines I had been digging for almost 45 min. The machine had already beat me black and blue (not literally but it sure felt like it) and I still had most of the trenching left. I managed to get the next half of the first line done in slightly less time. I got down along the back fence of our yard and this is

when I started to feel the sting of defeat, tack weed, blisters, and sore muscles. The first 15 ft along the fence was very smooth and relatively quick. Then I noticed that I was slowly moving closer to the fence and that I needed a course correction. The 800lbs machine didn't like being man-handled and it fought me for every inch of movement. It was then that I started hitting boulders the size of my head...yes really that big. The machine bucked, and rocked, and generally punished me for the next 20 ft. of trench. Then my wife returned from her errands. I was pouring sweat, chewing on dust and grit, and looking at a blister that seemed to reach the muscles of my palm and it didn't get any easier. I spent a total of 5 hours feeling like someone was beating me with a baseball bat...and then the real work started. So far we have laid 1 full circuit and started the lines for the last two. There are parts of the trench for those last two lines that are going to require a lot of shovel work...so the pain isn't over yet. More to follow.