According to our calculations, we need 3 cubic yards of top soil for our new garden boxes.  What’s a cubic yard look like?  I had no idea.  So we made a few calls, found a good deal and drove over to pick it up.

When the wizened garden lady at the nursery heard we needed 3 yards, she said “What type of car do you have?”  A mini truck.  To which she responded, “Dirt is heavy, you hear?” and walked off shaking her head at the pair of rural amateurs.

So we bought a yard and the cashier said, “Okay, the tractor will meet you in the back.”  I couldn’t help but exclaim, “The tractor!?”  And she nodded, as if to say hell yeah, of course we have a tractor.

I watched in awe as the tractor besieged the twenty foot pile of top soil.  The scooper went in part way, then the tractor popped a wheelie and the rear wheels spun and diesel fumes billowed as more soil went in.  Then it lifted its payload in victory and approached my Taco.

I told the driver everything:  Look, I have no idea what I’m doing.  I don’t know what my truck can handle.  Can you help?  He smiled and nodded.

The scoop lowered and a shower of dirt and rocks hit the bed.  My truck bounced up and down.  It looked so little, and there was so much dirt.  We barely got a scoop in before my rear suspension was slammed.  The driver said, “Eh, that’s about it.  How far you going?”  From McKinleyville to Eureka.  “Ah, okay.  Should be alright…”

My car had converted into a half lowrider.  The rear leaf springs were totally flat.  Help.

I was going to drive the 20 miles or so on surface streets only, but Beth convinced me to hit the highway and we were underway, bouncing and swaying like a waterbed teeter totter.  I lost a fair number of hit points, but we made it home without incident.

Today I single-handedly unloaded the dirt with our new wheelbarrow.  It was tough work, but novel.  There I was, swinging a shovel, hauling a barrow, getting dirty.  Moving mass around.  Changing the landscape.  Hauling earth!

Then I went back to get the other half and did it all again.  One cubic yard out of three.