Town Hall blessed my plan so I grabbed the shovel and wheel barrow and started removing sod. The trenches will be dug here. They must be below frost line. I'm doing this the old fashioned way ... by hand!
A quick tour of this pic. The pile in the back left corner is the sod. The little pile in the middle is good soil for later. The front left pile is rocks and hunks of concrete. This empty lot had a house on it years ago. (Hint: that pile will grow.)
The strings show where the foundation walls will eventually rise just above ground level. The trench on the left isn't crooked. The left rear corner is almost a foot and a half below the right front. I may need extra fill before this job is done.
No pic yesterday. All I did was dig and dump, plus see how much water I can drink and how sunburned I could get. We did have some excitement. We found the stoop to the long gone house. It was buried right in the corner where two of my footings need to go. I spent all afternoon digging around it, then I was able to move it with a hydraulic jack. This morning I used an air chisel to nibble away some slots so the chains would bite in rather than just slide off. (See honey, I did need that log chain.) Once properly rigged the mighty Tundra dragged it right out. Some times it's nice to have a four wheel drive truck and some muscle under the hood!
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With the old stoop removed I was back to playing ditch digger duty. It's good honest labor for sure. Not so boring either. You never know what you find. We started a bucket to collect little things. Mostly junk of course but that house was gone for many decades so it can still be interesting. Then you find something like this.
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It's four feet long and steel. So what the heck is it?
Yesterday was all about digging. Today started dry with more progress before the thunder storm rolled in. The trenches are about 80% dug now but rain means mud so that will slow me down. Mother Nature knows best. It's been a long week. I'll take the break!
Rain stopped yesterday so, despite some mud, I finished digging trenches. Meh! Now, remember that stoop from a prior house? Well it's foundation is still there, and it overlaps with mine. I'd certainly rather go over it than under.
You may be wondering about that drain pipe. My idea of a modern barn means modern plumbing. Tim The Toolman would be proud.