Digging Ditches - Happy VD to us!

Kathy and Alex are down to crunch time on getting their driveway put in so that they can start building their new home.  BUT, before that can happen, we needed to put in drainage so the driveway would not flood.  390 feet of drain pipe to be exact.

So like morons, we waited until it was -15F and blowing 25 mph before starting.  Actually, we had to wait for the weather to cooperate a bit.  We needed the ground frozen enough to support the backhoe, but not so frozen that we couldn't dig.  Plus we needed a time when we were all available.  Welcome to Saturday, 14 FEB 2015 - Valentine's Day.  Hey, let's go dig a ditch.  It was either NOW, or wait until August when the ground dries back out.  Time to get r dun.....

Dad drove the hoe up at 9:30 am.  Alex and I took the Gator over with shovels.  We started E of the pond and between the pond and their driveway.  We quickly returned to get ski goggles as it was too cold and windy to have our eyes exposed.  Things were going great until the clay/mud mixture of ground refused to come out of the bucket.  Hand digging that crap out was the opposite of fun.

Dad dug W, then turned and went N.  The grade was too steep at the driveway, so Alex and I had to throw dirt back in to keep the water draining.  And yes, 4 feet down where the ground was not frozen, it was WET.  We stood in about 3" of water and filled in the ditch to the proper grade.  Our pant legs froze.  Not bad down in there though, as we were out of the wind.  In fact, working down in the ditch we actually started to sweat.  Not true if you were out in the wind!

Of course Dad opened up the cab of the hoe and hollered out, "I'm sweating in here!"  KMA.  He did always say that he went to college so he wouldn't have to be a laborer.  Good call.

Dad dug for 4.5 hours.  Alex and I took a 30 minute break at Noon for some chili and went back out.  Once the pipe was laid, Dad started to fill it in and then turned the duties over to us.  Alex filled in the ditch back to my yard and then I filled in the yard.  We were no where close to LEVEL.  We actually suck at running heavy equipment.  The job got done, but it's NOT pretty.

Now, when the "professionals" come to cut in the driveway, our goal is to entice them to level the ditch as well.

Six hours after starting and one thirty-minute break later, we are as done as we can make it for now.  Hopefully this will allow the water coming off the field to go around and under their driveway instead of flooding it out.

We may have to come back later and put in another 100 ft or so to the N side of the drive, but time will tell.  For now the driveway can be put it, which gets us to the first step of building a house.

Some pictures of the day follow:

A Google Maps clip of the area.
Red is proposed driveway.  Blue is 390' of new ditch draining to my yard.
Black is approximate area of new house.


Just getting started with digging the ditch.  Facing W.  Existing driveway is at the telephone poles.
Gator parked on area where new driveway is to be installed.


Photo taken from my driveway, facing S.
Just starting to dig.  Pa Jerry is the Hoe Operator, inside cab, out of the wind.
It has not started to snow yet, but the winds are whipping at 25 mph!



 
Down in the ditch, ensuring that the slope goes W so it will drain.
Note the accumulation of water already starting.  Now you get why it needs to have drainage.
Supervisor Apollo is on site - yellow lab.
Ground is frozen to a depth of about 2-3".  See "slabs" on left side of picture, top of ditch.


Alex is now operating the hoe.  Pipe has been laid and is draining.  Time to backfill.
You can see off to the left-hand side of the picture that although we've backfilled, it's still not level.


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