I was dithering again. The one thing I’ve learned about digging is you are really much better to go backwards from where you are working. Once you have dug, you cannot drive back to it - or at least not on our bog! We had made an unholy mess with the drainage work and I was thinking more about what I was doing with the earth I had removed now.
I started by making a flat path along the side of the garage slab site for wheel barrows and the likes. Meanwhile Julia was setting up Hughey and taking depth readings. She was marking out where the piers needed to go with coloured tape and stakes. I didn’t dig though. Something just didn’t feel right. I made another call to my bro in law and asked Patrick to come round when he was next passing. Patrick has agreed to “consult” for us. He is a local builder and is very knowledgeable. He is advising us and we can check plans with him before we start working. He is a very great help to us novice builders.
While waiting for help from Chris and Patrick, I turned my attention to gathering water. We would not have enough from the roof for the 1000L we would need for concrete so I needed to import some. We could have used the fire pond we had dug last year but it was a bit dirty and, as soon as we started taking from it, we would likely stir it up making it worse. The burn at the bottom of the hill is the answer so I set about making pump systems to take down in the car. I would bring a barrel in the boot and pump water into it. A bit laborious but if I even half filled the 1500L tank we were sorted.
Having spoken to Patrick and Chris we settled on a plan for the piers. We decided to rethink the level of the garage slab and raise it a bit and also be prepared to build some of the piers below the water line. If things worked out as planned we would have time to compact the hardcore and set the form before the water came in. The the concrete would displace the water and it would be fine.
Today was very windy and the trailer was exposed to the full force so we moved it to a more sheltered place beside the static. If a really big storm is forecast I’ll tie it down somehow too.
I also arranged 25 tonnes of local gravel to be delivered tomorrow. We need this to fill the parts of the furrow that I should not have dug up! It will also be needed for temporary tracks for the heavy deliveries. Big vehicle access is a big problem still.
We finished the day with a rewarding walk on the beach. What a roller coaster of emotions this has been so far! And we remembered the end of day shot again….
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