Another day in the pit. We thought we would be able to finish installing the tubes today. But soon after we started digging out the remaining sand a LARGE section of the pit wall collapsed.
This set us back a bit… Using the Kanga Kid (KK) we moved the collapsed material to the right of the trench and compacted it into a mound.
We could now continue to put tubes in… We actually managed only 2 tubes today before the rain came again.
Shaun was digging near the wall of the pit and a large section collpased on him. He was buried up his waist!
But that was on 300mm deep as he was kneeling!
Short days work today, started late after Shaun had an appointment and finished early because it rained!
But we got the first section completed by leveling the sand over the area and compacting. The mini loader does manage to drive over the compacted sand but cuts it up a bit when turning
Full days work today. Completed 7 tubes! We had to clear more sand than expected as a large part of the wall fell in.
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Where the tubes bend we mitered the joint and covered it with geo-textile.
Continued this for the next 6 tubes, so finished 7 tubes completely.
Progress in installing the actual earth tubes in the bottom of the pit.
Installed 5 earth tubes today, this involved moving large amount of sand as the hole is not quite deep enough and has a few ‘hills’.
Buried the last 6 tubes in the first section of the pit. Once again the walls slumped in a bit when compacting near them, this time they tried to bury me! Luckily it was only knee deep, I pulled myself out and caught up with the compactor which was merrily carrying on…
Down into hell again, well the pit is very hot when the sun shines… Started by repairing the frame holding the exit pipes as it had blown over and snapped the light framing. After repairs we fixed the pipes in place ready for connection.
Then we moved the sand from the shed side of the hole ready for the first pipe. We then ran the plate compactor along the cleared section and a number of sections of the wall slumped down (one nearly buried the compactor)! More digging…
We will start by installing all 12 tubes upto the point where they would bend towards the house, this is 2 pipe lengths (12m).
In the end the first earth tube was installed and the space between it and the wall filled up to the top of the pipe.
We then spent time cleaning the compactor.
We started to dig the first trench for the earth tubes and as soon as it was full depth the walls started to collapse, a large chunk from the right and a smaller section on the left.
As we were planning to work at the bottom of these trenches this is a bit of problem… When we dug out the leach field the sides of the hole stayed put for a week and more!
I think we will have to think of another way to do the earth tubes…
Started the day by doing a repair on the digger which I had been meaning to do for ages. The switch which allows the boom to be swiveled side to side relative to the cab hasn’t worked for ages. Fixed it but it took hours… Then back to the soil moving.
Oops! I bent the wheelbarrow which was leaning against the bank (the boundary between us and school) and backed the dumper truck into it!
Last bit of soil removal and a bit of a tidy up. Then we could start marking out where the earth tube tenches will go. 25 stakes later a cats cradle was born…
Started moving the top soil to our spoil heap at the top of the garden. Just load and dump over and over again…
The next job is to clear the area for the garage, earth tubes, rainwater tanks and soak away. We need to remove the top soil over the area from the fence to the loke.
Remove paving slabs from in front of the old shed doors. Then at 12:30 Rain stopped play (oops I mean Work!), a nice summer thunderstorm of rain and hail which droped 11mm of rain in 15 minutes! Then the rain set in for the rest of the day…
Yippee the mass wall is now finished ..
I think this the the hardest thing we have done so far (a foretaste of things to come).
Here are some statistics – 11m long, 300mm wide and 775mm high (2.6 cubic meters). This required us to dig nearly 4 cubic meters of soil out (50 wheel barrow loads). The concrete was made with 35 bags of cement (nearly a ton) and over 200 buckets of sand and stones and it weighs over 6 tons!
And now watch it all in 2 minutes