Sixteen tons

Freda and I spent a back-breaking day on Wednesday picking rocks, stones, branches, roots out of the topsoil, and then raking it out level to prepare for seeding with grass seed.

It reminded me of the song with the title of this blog entry (lyrics below), as it felt like we had moved 16 tons of rocks and dirt.

I called the propane people to raise up the tanks, as the backfill by the house was 1' too low. The guy said just have the gravel there, and the field crew would raised up the tanks. When the field guys arrived, they looked at me as if I was from Mars when I related the convesation, and said they would move the tanks, and I would have to raise the level of the fill where the tanks were located, and then call them again to replace the tanks. Not too impressed because all the people with the equipment were gone and I had to move all the sand/gravel fill by wheelbarrow.

Note the pile of branches and roots in the foreground. There were piles like this every 8-10 feet. We went around with a wheelbarrow and picked up all this stuff and dumped it in the woods, and then picked up the piles of rocks and dumped them at a spot by the far end of the house to control erosion and weeds.

This is the tanks after being replaced. Note the propane guys put a cover over the regulator.

The air conditions guys came by and raised up the air conditioner.

When this photo was taken, the window wells were just sitting in place, and were not fastened to the wall.

Unfortunately the AC people didn't fill this hole in with putty again after they raised the AC unit. And the crew was supervised by their QC manager!!!! Very funny!!!

I have called him 3 times now and still nobody has come out. When I spoke with Mr QC Manager the first time, he said he would be out that day to fix it up. Hah!



Sixteen Tons
Written by Merle Travis, 1946
Made famous by Tennessee Ernie Ford, 1955

Some people say a man is made outta mud
A poor man's made outta muscle and blood
Muscle and blood and skin and bones
A mind that's a-weak and a back that's strong

(chorus)
You load sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine
I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine
I loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal
And the straw boss said "Well, a-bless my soul"

(chorus)

I was born one mornin', it was drizzlin' rain
Fightin' and trouble are my middle name
I was raised in the canebrake* by an ol' mama lion
Cain't no-a high-toned woman make me walk the line

(chorus)

If you see me comin', better step aside
A lotta men didn't, a lotta men died
One fist of iron, the other of steel
If the right one don't a-get you, then the left one will

(chorus)

* canebrake - n: a dense growth of cane (especially giant cane). See http://www.lewisbamboo.com/gigantea.html