11.21.2013 - First Scoop of Dirt!

Today was a big red letter day!  Jim dug the very first scoop of dirt for the carriage house foundation!  We were really excited - while everything we've done so far has been fun and been important site work steps, this was the first real work on what will eventually be a structure!

Big thumbs up for the first scoop!

I had to run into Saratoga Springs this morning to pick up a new battery for the chipper, so I didn't get to the land until after lunch.  By that time, Jim had gotten the laser level all set up and ready to go.  It is so nice!  The optical level is good for certain things (like when we were figuring out elevations on the driveway) but with the laser level Jim got it all set up and calibrated, got a reference point set on the driveway area, then attached the detector to the measuring stick - then we could move the stick all around and it would beep when it was at the same level as the reference point.  Very cool!

So Jim would dig for a little while and then I would grab the stick and see how much more he needed to dig in that area.  We are basically working on a hill and so your eyes do funny things to your frame of reference - you think you're digging too deep but the level would tell you that you need to dig further.  It was a lot of fun, even though it will take us awhile to get into a rhythm.  To add to the fun, because the nights have been cold, the top layer of dirt freezes overnight.  Then it melts when the sun comes out - so we are basically working in a mud pit!  You have to be careful because it gets pretty slick!

For now, Jim was digging and just placing the dirt next to him. 



In between holding the stick for measuring, my other task today was to mark off the general footprint of the carriage house so that Jim had a reference for digging.  He had stakes set up out of the way and had already done two sides, but I needed to do the other two.  I stretched twine between the stakes and then took our new marking tool (a birthday present from Kyle & Julia!) and mark off paint lines.  Then I had to estimate 3 feet from the line and mark another line - because he'll want to dig out farther than the foundation so we have room to work.  I discovered that I'm not real skilled at that job - my lines aren't real straight and I somehow managed to get quite a bit of paint on the twine as well as a few splatters on my boots!  Poor Jim - good help is hard to find!

 

At the end of the day when it was time to quit, Jim just pushed the dug up dirt out of the way with the Bobcat.  We're going to need more dirt over in the barn area, but we're going to have tons and tons of dirt - anyone need any?