Productive but not exactly fun...

See that 10 yard dumpster? Yeah, we filled that this weekend. The sad part is that this was actually the second dumpster. You heard that right. We started with the 8 yard dumpster. Oy.

Saturday morning, we borrowed an extra teenager (thanks, Deanna!) and we got to work. Nathan set Noah and Gabe to loading up and clearing out the 8x8x2' dumping ground in our back yard along with a rock pile leftover from our front yard yardwork earlier this summer (having first removed part of the fence so they could wheel their loads directly across the front yard to the dumpster). This took them most of the day, and we were quite thankful for this plan...as Gabe kept Noah on track and having them work together freed up Nathan to help me in the garage and around back.

Did I mention the garage? Yup. The younger two boys and I spent the morning emptying almost the entire garage out into the driveway (with Nathan handling all the things we couldn't reach, lol). We moved and purged and sorted and eventually started putting things either into the dumpster or back into the garage...working toward the goal of clearing enough space to fit both vehicles into the garage. We got rid of a lot of stuff. ;)

(It's not quite done. It'll be another couple weeks, as we're waiting for the free local hazardous waste disposal day to get rid of the piles and piles of old paint cans and such (most of which have been in the garage since we moved in). Also, Nathan still needs to actually sort through and reorganize his tool area. He's delighted about this, lol.)

So. We filled that first dumpster and called for a second one. Beyond the dumping ground and rock pile and garage purging, we also loaded in piles of leftover debris from our deck removal, pieces of fence that had been removed for painting and such (new fence will be installed Tuesday!), and branches that we cut off one of the trees in the front since we're going to have the new fenceline move forward a few feet. We worked pretty much all day Saturday, and Nathan and I finished up this morning before tackling our normal weekend chores. It feels awesome to have all that stuff gone, but OY. ;)

(BTW, on Saturday alone, we went through a dozen eggs, four large pizzas, an order of breadsticks, an order of chicken tenders, two rotisserie chickens, and about three dozen gatorade bottles. Everyone managed to stay hydrated and mostly injury free. Mostly. Let's just note that most of the wood that went into the dumpsters had nails or screws protruding from them. Nathan will be getting a tetanus shot tomorrow.)