Yesterday was a day of manual labor for our team.  The local church wants to create a soccer field in a field behind the house of a local church attender.  She had a portion of her yard that was overrun with fireweed, weeds, thorn-covered fruit trees, bushes and a number of other types of trees. 
Our tools were a bit limited as we had 3 hoes, 2 rakes, 2 small hatchets, a meat-cleaver looking tool and a small axe whose head fell off every 5 swings.  By the end of the day we added a scythe.  We were old-school.
 
Ben swinging for the fences with a hoe.

A number of blisters, lots of scratches and a few gallons of sweat later the field looks dramatically different.  They will bring in a tractor to till the ground and then prepare it for soccer.  I am sure we will be back to do more work later in the month, but it was a fun day of laughing at the absurdity of chopping down 6" diamater trees with a dull hatchet and meat cleaver.  It is a good thing I love sport as it made it totally worth it.