Friday and Saturday-two hard days

Friday the plumber told us he may be able to get to our sewer hook up on Monday if the pipe was ready to connect so our job ever since has been to get the pipe within connecting distance. Butch and I worked on it Friday and made considerable progress. We continued on Saturday and Leo came to help and a great deal of help he was too. Keri fixed us lunch and supper and that too was a big help. We are grateful and thankful. The hard part was digging out under the house to make room for the pipe and get the right slope. Leo was able to get his sizable frame under the house and made a bunch of progress on the dirt digging part. Butch brought up many bucketfuls of black Iowa dirt and took it outside to add to our pile. That had been my job earlier in the day and it certainly isn't easy. Butch had to use smaller buckets when I was doing it. Once Leo and Butch had a rhythm going I switched my job to pulling staples. I completed my job and they nearly completed theirs. Butch has more digging to do today but we should finish and be ready for the plumber tomorrow.
When Leo first pulled up in the back alley our neighbor to the northwest was hollering for her dog (Layla the pitbull). I noted the tone of panic in her call but the dog did listen and came to her. It apparently had gotten loose. At the same time her 3 or 4 year old daughter came running out the back door of their house buck naked. There was so much going on that Leo completely missed the girl. He was focused on the dog! It was a busy two minutes!! Butch was under the house digging a trench and missed all of it.
Here are pictures I took yesterday:

The tulips in the front yard are huge!

This is the black hole where Leo and Butch spent too much time the past couple of days.

My dirt pile beside the tree. It looks so small in this picture. I plan to plant some hostas around the tree. Do your hostas need thinned?

Leo and neighbors Everett and Bert Beebe

The cactus blooms!