Part 2: The Dig

 It felt like such a huge accomplishment to remove all the plaster, the lath, the old clapboards, the carpet, the closet....but oh we were just getting started. 

That dirt was so hard and dry and so packed down. We dug. We pick-axed. Eventually....Troy was brilliant and brought in the tiller. That helped a ton! I made more trips up and down the driveway with the wheelbarrow carrying buckets of dirt than I cared to count. Troy of course made his fare share of trips as well. I tried to work during the day as much as possible, whenever I could. 

 

We left one little strip of the old porch floor installed right by the doorway, since under that is open space down to our basement. Eventually that will have to be removed, but for now it's been helpful to have. As we dug, it was exciting to break through the dirt to the open space under the platform. Exciting and...creepy.

Speaking of creepy, I did find one kind of fun thing as I was digging. I had already unearthed plenty of my usual finds - mostly pig bones and pieces of broken dishes. But I did dig up this little friend:

I really wanted to find more of my little friend but so far, just the one piece. I like to imagine that she was once a beautiful dolly who made a little girl happy.

We actually have gotten a little bit of help with the dig. I have a friend with two darling boys, one of whom is on a baseball team that requires the kids to do some community service every week. They've been bored to tears looking for service and getting jobs like dusting and vacuuming. Oh no, not at my house. When they found out they would be wielding a pick-ax and shoveling dirt they were actually so excited. And they did a great job.