Digging ditches, oh yeah

Just came in from doing some serious manual labor on the driveway. It's 60 degrees F and we've had a good bit of rain. Our driveway was in need of some drainage improvements (an ongoing task), during rains it sometimes becomes a creek and parts of it will wash away, not a good thing. When it's wet, and cool, it's easy to see where the water is flowing, where it should be flowing, and the ground is somewhat soft. I grabbed my Tilley hat, of course, a T shirt, a gore tex shell, a pair of gloves, and a mattock. A mattock is sort of a digging axe, it has a long handle, and on one side of the head it has an axe/splitting edge and on the other side it has a wide curved digging edge. I have a tractor and a box blade but it's of no use really for this task, a backhoe or mini excavator would be good, but no need for that when you have a strong back, determined spirit, and a good mattock. I worked my way from the top of the driveway to the bottom, fixing the drainage as I went. Hard work! When I was near the bottom I was worn out, sweating, soaking wet, covered in mud, so I sat down in the middle of the driveway. Pup-pup came over and kept me company as I recovered. I was not right at the bottom of the driveway but about 60 feet up and a few cars went by. The driver of one car spotted me and decided to turn around and check on me, I told her I was fine and thanked her for stopping. I then finished the ditch work at the bottom of the driveway and admired my work as I walked back up to the house.