Before you start any job, you have to evaluate the situation thoroughly. So, we took a good long look at what we had here. We would be doing that a lot that afternoon.

So this is how it started that day...

"Well, what we got here", said Jim, "Is some big block of concrete shaped in the form of a step."

Tom nodded in agreement. He took a few swings which really shook the ground. He kept his concern that the steps might be solid poured cement to himself.

He decided to test this idea by taking some bites off the corners of the lower step. Luckily for us the builders had poured the concrete over debris left over from building the house.

"That will make it easier to bust up", assured Tom.

A handful of evaluations later Jim concluded that "easier" was a relative term. Sure, the bricks inside the steps helped with exploiting fault lines, but sometimes they exploded when the sledge hammer was applied.

The steps soon became a free hanging structure. The ground shook less with subsequent blows, but the pounding still freaked out the cats. It took days for Pansy to recover from Tom's visit.

Tom and Jim traded off walloping the step and spraying the yard with high speed projectiles. Chris did her best at clearing debris between turns, though the boys did have a tendency to pitch back chunks of broken concrete without really watching where they might land.

Now if the truth be told...

Jim was lining up his swing. The hammer came down with barely a tap, and dang if the step didn't fall off the house.