A hard days work

I have always valued a hard days work. Today I experienced one of the hardest days work in my life.

Over Christmas I put in many extra hours, so I took this past week off. There were a couple projects that made the weeks "To Do" list. My brother Seth and I got the drywall up in our downstairs bathroom, taped and mudded it. We were looking forward to sanding and painting it today, but plans changed.

I got a call last evening from Carl Jones, a friend and construction contracter. He and I have talked about putting a French Drain in our basement. He called to let me know that he had the men and equipment to do it tomorrow! So at 7:00 a.m. we emptied our basement, and at 9:30 the jackhammer arrived.

Our home is a split level with an additional basement. Since we moved into the house 5 years ago, that basement has been little more than storage because there is usually water running across the basement floor. By putting the French Drain in, we will regain the use of almost 1/4 of the house, space we plan to use for a band rehearsal place (complete with drums/guitar/bass, the whole works) and for the workshop. To put in a French Drain, we needed to jack hammer a one foot trench around the perimeter of the basement in the concrete, then dig out the trench deep enough to put a corrugated pipe in, hook it to the sump pump, then fill it with rock and cover it with concrete.

Living in Claymont, (Clay- Mont; mount of clay) we thought the toughest part of this was going to be digging the trench deep enough in the clay. We were sorely mistaken! As soon as we started with the jackhammer, we realized we were in for a long day. We discovered that there was not just one floor to jack hammer through, but 3, to the depth of a foot. It seemes that there was some attempt at an earlier type of drain, but that wasn't working well.

So 6 hour and 4 men later, our basement looked like this.




We still have a lot of work to do, but we kicked tookie on it today! I can honestly say I have never worked such a physical day in my life, and that includes 100 degree days throwing 80 lb bales. It made me appreciate deeply the men and women who do this kind of labor day in and day out. My job has me often behind a desk, and certainly not in shape to daily do what we did today. I hurt!! These people work hard, and I would say never get the credit for what they do. God gives each of us abilities. I am grateful for what they shared with my family today. I enjoyed the workd today, and though I hurt and am (apprehensively) looking forward to another day of hard work tomorrow. That is if my body will let it happen!