Diggin' It!

Once again the entire week has blown past in a blur, and it's Friday. WHEW! I've been really busy getting KeeWee's new garden area graded off with the backhoe. What started out as a couple of raised beds has now turned into a 20 x 30 foot garden area with raised beds and a 6' high deer fence all around it. Site preparation needed to be revised to make the area flat and level. To add to the fun, while excavating for the garden area I "Located" the main PVC pipe that supplies water to the house. I guess that's why they call backhoes "Water line Locators" ! The water line was 30 feet away from where it was supposed to be and was barely 8" below the surface. No idea why it hasn't froze up during the Winter, being that shallow. Since it's plastic, a metal detector couldn't have found it anyway. Fortunately the damage was minimal and a short piece of pipe and two couplings and it was as good as new. I then trenched down another foot and a half and then back filled about 6" more over the top, so it should be pretty safe now, even from me.

KeeWee's new garden area, under construction.....

I've also got another much bigger excavation project underway, and it should be finished in a couple of weeks. The first step was to clear off all of the blackberry bushes from an area approximately 60' by 110'. The blackberries were, in some places, close to 9' high, so there was a fair amount of clearing required. My friend Wayne has a business where he has several backhoes, dump trucks, excavators, and so forth, and since I have the space, I let him park his equipment here at my place. If I need to move some dirt or dig a hole, the equipment is mine to use. That's a good deal for both of us!

New project area, looking down the hill.

From the lower end, looking up the hill.

To make the new area usable, it's going to have to be excavated out quite a bit to get a flat and level surface. All of that dirt will have to go somewhere, though. I guess I could just pile it up along all four sides into a berm, or something. I wonder what I should use the space for. Let's see, it will be approximately 35 feet wide by 70 feet long. Dirt berms will be around it on all sides, probably 8 feet high, and counting the 7' drop below ground level at the upper end, that makes about a 15' upper end berm. Tennis court? Skate board park? Keewee's already getting her own garden, so we don't need a second one of those.

Well, I'll just go ahead and build it, and I'll probably think of something to use it for later.............