The Digger

I never told the story of Dennis!

Remember back when I was filling trenches--by hand (oh, by the way, can you say tennis elbow? I feel so athletic!). Anyhoo, there was this one stretch where there had been a trench, then I had to fill it because the truck with the giant septic tank need to drive right where the trench was. Oh, and did I mention that the pipe wasn't in the trench before I filled it?

So, we got the tank in, got the gravel in the leech field, got the pipe in from the septic tank down through the leech field, got all that covered, and then laid the pipe above the septic tank--screetch! That was everything coming to a halt by the--you guessed it--a filled in trench!

I tell you what, I am willing to dump dirt into a big trench. I've proved that. But there was no wayyy I was going to take the dirt out!

So we hired Dennis! Dennis lives just down the road, and on the scheduled day he showed up--driving his white excavator. He had a Santa hat on and sported a big mustache and a Packers jacket.

He was from Wisconsin: had the accent and the attitude. He even had the beer! He kept producing cans of beer as he worked. It was hysterical. Great guy, he managed to get the trench dug out and then hung around while I put the pipe in (didn’t take long). Then, bless his heart, he filled it back up!

You know, I wasn’t real happy that we couldn’t use the excavator, But then our friends came up and pitched in, and then I got “the Dennis experience”—well I wouldn’t trade those time for anything!

Now, looking at the smooth ground that now hides our septic system, I can’t help but be very, very thankful. To steal a movie title—It’s a wonderful life.