Kelly’s parents spent the weekend with us, since we didn’t get to see them over the Christmas holidays. The weather was unusually warm, in the 70s, so Kelly’s dad and I decided to take advantage of it and get some outside tasks completed.
We’ve always had a small puddle in the corner of our backyard due to poor grading. A whole handful of neighborhood yards drain into ours. It created a swampy jungle, with reeds and weeds coming up to my shoulders. It was just a festering mess.
Neil volunteered to help put in a drainpipe with me, so we made a run to the local hardware store and returned with four 10′ sections of PVC pipe. The recent sleet made the ground quite soft, so it didn’t take long for us to dig a trench for that pipe. By the time the sun went down Saturday, we had a new drainpipe put in the ground.
Except it wasn’t quite finished. The ditch was dug but needed to be covered over. I spent a few hours this afternoon putting the finishing touches on it. That section of the yard is still no thing of beauty, but at least its on its way to recovery. The next step is to hire a landscaper to dump dirt in the valley there and regrade it all. But that can come later.
I can’t thank Neil enough for his efforts. I don’t think I would have ever gotten that project, uh, “off the ground” without his help.