Brought the "Little Mole" in today to assist in the re-excavation of depository site. It was only after I lowered her into the hole and removed the ladder, that I realized that this was the second septic system that she has dug this season. She was a trooper, no breaks even when I called for one, the five minute breaks were reduced to two minutes. Due to the depth of the pit and her vertical handicap (5'1") the dirt had to be transferred out of the site by the use of two five gallon buckets and pulling lines. The first lesson learned, DO NOT FILL A FIVE GALLON BUCKET FULL OF SAND AND GRAVEL. The pulling engine did not have enough horsepower so the transfer was reduced to half buckets. The first hundred or so buckets were used to back fill the cofferdam with the remainder being leveled off surrounding the pit foundation. We exceeded the original depth, to an actual pit depth of 7 feet 10 inches. From original ground level, it is approximately nine feet deep. Although a few "unique" rocks were discovered showing some color, no gold in nugget form was discovered. However, we did go deep enough to STRIKE water. At this point, we called off further dredging to keep from entering the aqua firm, however, it may be something to keep in mind. The water level is likely to be in the nine to ten foot range in the area of the HITW. Useful information in the event a water system is considered in the future.
"My Mole"
Following the dredging, the site was leveled with a very good quality of sand and gravel from the dredging operation in preparation for laying the foundation of the building. Should provide some excellent drainage and excellent building platform. It is hope, that weather permitting the foundation and decking will be taken care of tomorrow. In the event of rain, perhaps a trip to the big lumber yard to pick up a supply a dimensional framing lumber and siding. I am here to tell you, all of you are missing out on a lot of fun!
6 comments:
In the event you are wondering, below the cofferdam, there is about four feet of high quality of sand and gravel which should provide good drainage, just remeber, do not put the well on the downhill side of the pit.
How Cute you even got her a little shovel! Would it be weird if I said I can't wait to come back up and use the facility you and Terry and put so much hard work into? I mean the other one was nice but it was filling fast and the smell was getting horrible!
Hindsight being the perfect vision, the excavation debris could have been run through a sluice box before being used for fill. Maybe a box that uses natural runoff is in order below the glacier valley?
That is one nice looking hole and one cute mama in it. I bet she doesn't talk back when she is down there.
Even being stuck down there with no way out since she could not reach the rim, she still got sassy. I only had to threaten to put a lid on it and leave her down there a half dozen times. What did she do when she finally escaped the confines of the pit, she took her shovel and dredged John's Creek and re-routed the power line, had something to do with the power line being submerged in water. She had a "scheduled" outage to the HITW while during the process. The new power line, now follows the same route as the water line. What a unique concept, I think someone mentioned that earlier in the season.
Just checked the weather, we just may have a three day window over the weekend that it will be decent weather, at least no rain. Perhaps, some construction work can be accomplished ~ right after I start the pumps, again. Off I go!
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