Sentenced to Hard Labour...

This weekend saw the grunta earning his keep at home. The current project (why finish the other projects when you can start a new, more interesting one), is to put a deck out from our new(ish) sliding door. The temporary plank to is now two years old and slowly rotting, so a more permanent structure is required.

The initial task for this project was to lower the ground level where the deck will be, so that there is enough space below the door level to install some posts, bearers and joists. Lowering the ground level involved removing 9 cubic meters of soil. It took about 12 hours of digging, and erm, almost killed me.

A couple of magic moments occurred amongst the back breaking wheelbarrow work. The best one was watching the four boys, the youngest of these somewhat devoid of clothing on his bottom half, going hammer-and-tongs digging with Dad on a balmy Friday evening in complete harmony with each other. No fights, no grizzling, just 4 boys, a dad, and a whole s*** load of dirt.

The other moment was at 8:00 on Sunday night, when I filled the last wheelbarrow, and realised that we had knocked the whole thing off in one weekend. It was a really satisfying feeling.