We have a “babbling brook” at the far edge of our rear property. The brook has been babbling away at the edges, enough to cause some erosion that we don’t want to have happen. We were about to lose some Hellibore to the stream.

Yesterday, my partner and I spent several hours working on the problem. Deepening the stream channel, and removing some rocks and placing them as rip-rap along the edge so the water won’t erode more of the soil.

As I was working away, my partner stood by to hand me tools of the trade as I needed them — crow bar, sledge hammer, shovel — and we got the job done. While I’m sore as heck today, I can tell that the water is flowing more freely since it rained last night. Opening the stream by removing debris and huge quartz rocks will prevent more erosion of the soil. I bask in the soreness of a job well-done.

As I was finishing up, my partner smiled and said, “do you want me to get the camera?” … he knows that sometimes I take pictures of hard-working boots like these old muddy Chippewa Engineers, which seem to be designed for that purpose. A hard-workin’ man’s boots that have withstood a lot of this kind of work in the past, and keep on goin’.