Labor Day #1, Sept 2011

We started early with a big breakfast that Aimee and her Dad made: Cabbage, eggs, ham and bananas.

We started right off with finishing the hole we started the night before and cleaned it out as best we could with the auger before putting another hole right next to the other one.


The first hole



The second hole



Sam and Aimee came out about then to see what was up and Sam wanted to see the machine but got really timid after stepping onto it, then didn't want to be near it any more. Aimee got this pic just as he was stepping on:

Sam inspecting the holes



Sam on the loader

So while Bob, Aimee's Dad, cleaned out the remaining dirt in those holes, I went and started on the other location in the back. The dirt on that side of the yard was quite a bit wetter down about a foot so it clung to the auger bit pretty well and I was able to clean that hole out more than the first one. Bob then started cleaning out that one while I went to do the hole in the front.

Second location, first hole of 3

Cleaning out what the loader left

I made quite a mess in the front yard since I was planning on putting two of the 50 gallon dry well containers in the ground right next to each other to handle the front gutter and the runoff from the street that collects in our driveway. I ended up deciding that was way overkill and just put one in. It will have a lot of extra capacity with the extra gravel that got put around it anyways.

5 holes later



Note the flying dirt clump.



About the time I started digging out the left over dirt from drilling 5 holes, Aimee and Sam came back from doing a project at the home store; a dry erase board. I was kinda sad I missed doing the project with Sam, but it gave Aimee a chance to do one with him.

And of course Sam wanted to get in the hole with me; it was deeper than he is tall at 38" and ended up about 50-54 inches deep when I was done cleaning it out.

I think it was after lunch that I was done with the hole clean out and Bob had finished the ones in the back, so I started hauling the dirt from the back yard to the pile I had started in the front until it was time to go get the dump trailer I had reserved. I got the majority of the extra dirt moved and was just piddling around with the loader, leveling off the side of the driveway and digging a little in the lawn area in the back yard.

We went over to pick up the trailer at about 3 and got a bit of a break in the heat until we got back and started loading and hauling the extra dirt.





We got the trailer fully loaded, dumped at the landscape place, refilled with the rest of the pile, dumped, and came back with a full load of 3/4 open gravel before 5:30. It was well worth the rental fee to have the dump trailer so we wouldn't be killing ourselves with unloading my little utility trailer and making about 6 trips for every full load of the dumping trailer. It would have taken a full day just to get rid of all that dirt the other way.

We took a break for dinner and then went back out, put the trencher on and did the trench along the east side of the house, from the second hole in the back yard. It took a long time cuz the machine seemed to be a little under powered for a foot deep trench and it kept getting bound up on rocks. I had to keep raising the trencher, reversing it to kick out the rock and then try to lower it to the same depth again. Needless to say the trench was not too consistent. It got dark before we finished, so we left the other trenches for the next morning.

[Next: Labor Day #2 and cost vs effort decisions]