Can you Dig It?

"It is a good thing to follow the First Law of Holes: if you are in one, stop digging."
- Denis Healey

June 1, 2013

The time has come to start digging and our new friend Jim is good at what he does.  The plot on which we want to build it just a bit uneven so we have to level it.

Below is a panoramic of where we want to build.  This is a 180 degree image.  The gravel road that comes out of the woods in on the right side of the image continues out into the field in the left hand side of the image.  We plan to build where the wooden stakes are in the middle left of the image.  Click on it for a bigger view. 

 

Jim was able to do all the leveling with his skid steer.  He made quick work of it and gave some excellent advice.

He started by stripping the top soil off the field and piling it for later use when we need to "put the lawn back".

We took it down about 8 inches to get the top soil off.

We used Jim's trailer as a spectators area.  Nana's was visiting us and she and the kids made themselves at home to watch the show.

Jim was getting close to using some fill to level off the site.

Here's a little video of Jim in action.  He's pretty speedy on that thing!




By the end of the day we had leveled a spot for the grouse and left the space where the house will be.  This space will be leveled and cleared better at a later date (because of digging a basement and footers - why mess up the ground twice).

Next step is putting the forms together for the grouse concrete slab and filling it in.