When we moved in, the yard was covered with pine needles, grass was sparse, and nothing wanted to grow.

After a few years of cleaning up, I ordered a truckload of topsoil and David and I got to work.

That went well, I had a whole summer and a spring of a full lawn.  Should have known
something would go wrong.

I was working in the flower garden when I noticed a pile of wood dust at the base of one
of the largest trees.  I called in an expert, and we found rot, carpenter ants, and much
weaker trees that I had previously thought.

So, the decision was made to take them down.  Turned out that most of them were
intertwined at their tops, and would have left the remaining ones too weak to stay on their own. 
So the lot was mostly cleared. 

We recovered from that, and I managed to get the lawn growing again.  That's when we
decided to start the excavation...