Digging and Digging

Finally, I got the two holes dug for the barn-shed tie downs.  On Monday, I checked my nephew's grades like I do every day because the school emails them to me.  I noticed two big zero's in English which brought his overall grade down to a D again.  69.5 to be exact.  I fumed about them for a while since I was at work and could not do anything and then decided that the new rule for this quarter would be that any late work means manual labor as well as zero's.  Last quarter, if he got the work in late then he escaped the hard labor but from now on, even if he turns it in and gets a half credit, he has to do work for me.  I knew he had done the assignments which made it extra frustrating for me that he didn't turn them in on time.  That kid is going to get stuck going to summer school even though he does the work.

So, when I got home, I got out two pairs of gloves and two shovels and we each started digging holes.  It was hard work even thought it had rained a couple of days earlier.  After 12" it was pretty much impossible so we unwrapped the digging bar.  I had heard that the digging bar makes digging in rocky soil easier but I had never used one.  

Teen labor.

 The internet was right.  Digging bars are awesome for digging up rocks.  He used the bar to pry out the rocks and I finished scooping out the dirt.  It was dark by the time we were finished and we had to use his cell phone for light.

18 inches!

 I was thrilled to get that chore done, well almost done.  I tossed a tie-down anchor in each hole and we went inside for the night.  The next day I had to work late so I didn't get home until after dark.  This morning, I heard it raining and when I checked the holes they had some water in the bottom so I scooped some Quik-crete into the holes and mixed it with dirt.  It rained again this afternoon.  Now I need to wait for the soil to dry out and then call the geo-technical engineers to see if my tie-downs will pass the 400 pound requirement.  I sure hope they do because I want to move on and do something else to the barn-shed, like, put skirting around it, build stairs, possibly even extend my fence so that it goes all the way from the mobile home to the barn-shed.

In other news, my nephew's choir class is having a fundraiser for their spring trip to a Disneyland choir competition.  They are selling super-expensive candles.  I'm really not interested in candles.  Doesn't anyone sell candy bars anymore?  I suppose it could be worse.  He could be selling magazine subscriptions.

$17 and $28 for candles.  I can't tell how big (or small) they are.

Today at work, one of my co-workers sent me a picture of this koala and said that when I was having a bad day I should look at the koala and it would make me feel better because at least I wasn't as miserable as the koala.

That made no sense to me.

First off, as a biology major drop-out, I am very interested in animals so I had to look up koalas.  This koala is in fact sleeping in the rain and not miserable.  His fur is waterproof and koalas live outside in trees so it is normal for them to get rained on.  They also sleep a lot to conserve energy.  This koala is perfectly fine.

But, being someone who cares for many animals, seeing an animal in perceived "need" does not make me feel better because I am better off than it.  I want to help it.  So, I gave the koala a coat and hat and sent it back to my coworker.

Problem solved!