Last week, strong storms and tornadoes left a path of destruction through central and southern Indiana. We knew about a day or two in advance that some severe weather was coming, but weren’t quite sure exactly what we were going to get hit with. As the storm progressed throughout the night, Aaron and I stood out on our back deck (like the true midwestern folk that we are), listening to tornado sirens and emergency vehicles being dispatched nearby. We looked up into the sky and were in awe of how quickly the clouds changed, and how intense the winds were. While we were extremely fortunate to only get hit with strong winds and rain, the closest tornado touched down about 10 miles from our house, leaving much of the surrounding area scattered with damage and debris. 

It is not uncommon for Indiana to get hit by adverse weather, so when the storms roll in, we know that there will always be cleanup to follow. The following morning, we took a look around our yard and knew we would have some work to do. We had already planned on getting a few other outdoor projects done in the coming weeks, so we took the opportunity to “spring into action,” and get started on the additional yard work we had been procrastinating. 

Our first task was to clear out all of the sticks, leaves, and branches that had come down after the storm. Aaron took the backyard, and I got to work out front. We don’t have a ton of outdoor storage space at this house, so the extent of our yard tools doesn’t stretch very far beyond a few rakes and shovels. We don’t have a riding lawnmower or even a wheelbarrow. For us, the fastest (and most space-saving) way to get through large clean-up projects is to throw all of the sticks, leaves, etc. onto a tarp, then drag the tarp wherever it needs to go. Whenever we get the tarps out, we make sure to use an A.N.T. 

Without the A.N.T. I probably would have been about half as productive as I was with it. Instead of having to walk back and forth to wherever my stick pile was, I was able to just carry it behind me while I worked. I walked up and down the length of our front yard with the A.N.T. strapped across the front of my body, and was able to bend down to pick up sticks as I saw them, then toss them onto the tarp that was following behind me. Our house sits on top of a hill, so once I filled the tarp with the debris from the bottom of the hill, I was worried that dragging a heavy tarp back up to the top would be impossible. I was surprised by how helpful it was to be able to walk forwards up the hill with the A.N.T., instead of having to hunch over and try to stumble backward uphill. I was then able to walk with my tarp full of sticks and branches, about 30 yards over to the end of our driveway, where we put our stick pile out for the city to mulch it and haul it away. It also would have been just as easy to bring the tarp over to a burn pile, dumpster, etc. for disposal. 

Once I finished working on the front yard, Aaron called me over from out back and asked if I could bring him the ladder so he could do the gutters. The ladder is pretty heavy (for me) and really awkward to carry, so I tried clipping into it with the A.N.T., then slung it over my shoulder and carried it horizontally, which was so much easier. While Aaron tossed down sticks from the roof and blew all the leaves out of the gutters, I raked everything onto a tarp, then used the A.N.T. to bring the full tarp out to the pile at the end of the driveway. Unloading was pretty easy- with the A.N.T. strapped across the front of my body, all I had to do was walk over to the pile, turn around to face the tarp, then walk forward on top of the tarp so that it turned itself over and emptied the leaves and sticks onto the spot where we were collecting them. 

Now that we were done with the clean-up portion of this operation, it was time to get to the fun part. Our backyard is a bit of a muddy disaster. We don’t have great soil back there, and there are several areas that get hardly any sunlight. Plus, with tons of rain this season, and two dogs that love to go tromping through the mud, it’s just a hot mess. We were getting pretty tired of constantly having to wipe off muddy paws, and not being able to enjoy our backyard without bringing tons of mud back into the house. With summer creeping up on us, we wanted to get the backyard to a place where we could actually enjoy spending time out there. 

Our goals for this project were:

• hardscape a stone path that leads from the landing at the bottom of the deck to the fire pit (where we would spend most of our time in the backyard) 

• level out some of the mud pits with healthy soil

• put down some grass seed and fertilizer

• construct a temporary fence where the new grass would be growing that would keep the dogs out of the muddy areas and give them a patch of healthy grass to go potty

After spending way too much time in the home improvement store, it was getting to be later in the afternoon and we needed a fast and efficient way to unload ten 30 lb. bags of marble rock, 8 stone pavers, five 40 lb. bags of top soil, two 40 lb. bags of fertilizer, two 40 lb. bags of grass seed, 20 wooden stakes, and a heavy roll of chicken wire. If you’re keeping track, that’s almost 800 pounds of materials! Were we really going to make 10-15 trips back and forth from the driveway to the backyard trying to haul everything out there? 

We brought out a tarp and an A.N.T. and first loaded the tarp up with all 10 bags of the marble rock, plus the stone pavers. Aaron started walking out back with it and then told me that he thought I could actually do it. Now, believe me when I say that by no means am I some mega-buff superhuman. Aaron was convinced that I could move nearly 400 lbs. of rocks about 50 yards. Was he losing it? Me, the girl that considers it a great workout if she adds the tiny 5-lb weights to the barbell at the gym… But why not humor him, right? I take over, strap the pad across the front of my body, take a few mighty steps forward to get some momentum, and then, remarkably, I’m doing it. I won’t lie and say it was the easiest thing I’ve ever done, but there was absolutely no way I could have done that without the A.N.T.

We finished getting all of our materials out back in less than 10 minutes. If we had needed to make all of those trips back and forth, carrying each bag of material out one by one, it would have taken us at least twice as long. We were then able to get the rest of our project done before the sun went down, and couldn’t believe how much we had accomplished over the course of a few hours. 

Honestly, I used to absolutely dread yard work. I’m not very strong, and I didn’t like feeling so weak and useless while trying to tackle these kinds of projects. With the A.N.T., I feel like I can actually be helpful and productive. The A.N.T. takes a lot of the hard work out of yard work and gives me the capability to do things that would either take more time or more energy to do without it. I’m looking forward to finding even more ways that we can make use of the A.N.T. this spring, and highly recommend that everyone give it a try. Whether it’s for cleaning up storm debris, raking leaves, collecting hedge trimmings, or doing a D.I.Y. project, I will never go back to doing yard work without an A.N.T.! - Ariana