The Cistern

After lots and lots of digging and about 20 really stinky 5 gallon bucket loads of gross muddy water, the cistern was ready to get yanked out of the ground. However, Adin and my attempt to pull it out with the 4wheeler didn't work. We just could not get a grip on it at the right angle with the cable. Adin did get really good at controlling the buttons for the winch. When Scott got home he got out his drill and drilled a large hole in the side and hooked the cable to it and it popped right out of the ground.

This is the cistern upside down in the yard.

Now all I have to do is finish filling up the holes and we'll be good to go. I think that we are just going to leave the plastic pipe in the ground and not dig it up as it goes under the deck and all the way to the house. Digging under the deck doesn't sound to fun to me.

It was pretty cool once we got the barrel out Adin said, "look mom, there is a worm." Well his worm wasn't really a worm after all. It was a skink that was about 3 inches long at most. Scott jumped in the hole and grabbed it so the kids could get a better look. The skink's tail was the coolest color purple, which Adin loved as purple is one of his favorite colors. We let the skink go in some bushes on the edge of the yard. The kids loved seeing it and kept going over to where we let it go looking for it.

Tonight I also tried my hand and splitting wood by hand with my friend "the Maul." I knew it was going to be hard and the wood was green which make it even harder, but after many attempts I did get one chunk split. I need a lot better aim (I think - no - I know I made Scott nervous.) I figure that if I keep working on splitting by hand (as we do not have a hydraulic splitter yet) I'll be in pretty good shape by the end of the summer with all the wood we have that needs to be split. Or - I could have a really messed up back and shoulder (old injuries!) I guess we will see. It was fun though.