Construction, I mean Destruction Begins!

Earlier this week I tore out the front cement walkway with an electric jack hammer. Not very fun especially since the first one I rented started smoking, but it was easier than using a sledge hammer. Here's our stack of concrete:

 

But the real fun began on the weekend. First we rented a sod cutter to remove the grass, then we rented this gigantic tiller:

We needed to break up our dry soil that's been baking in the July sun, so that it is easier to work in, but also because we need to remove quite a bit of dirt because our front yard needs to be regraded with a slope away from the house. While I wrestled the 800 pound beast, Mike had the not so fun job of removing our now huge foundation plantings and their roots.

Now there's only about a ton of dusty, dry dirt to pile up on the driveway!