Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Hey, that actually worked!

(Insert fascinating picture of a big, dusty hole in the ground here)

I've had a problem at M's Dome for some days now.

I've been filling in the big trench surrounding the Dome, basically using the tractor's bucket to build a road as I advance. I got to the turn where the trench goes to the rear of the Dome, and couldn't go any further. The tractor wouldn't make the turn.

So I widened the trench. That helped a lot, but I still couldn't make the turn. I tried digging out the far part of the trench, because I really, really didn't want to pull out any more of the bottom of the hillside. That didn't work at all. With death in my heart I dug out the bottom, reducing the angle of the turn as much as I possibly could without digging up M's septic line or propane pipe. It still got awfully narrow right at the end, and I was certain I'd made a big mess to no purpose at all. Pushed all the spoil up the hill and dumped it into the trench, as far as I could reach. That left me with a big pile of dirt right at the end of the "road," which the bucket simply couldn't reach to push down into the trench.

Got out the idiot stick and spent about three quarters of an hour shoveling all that dirt down into the trench, smoothing out the "road" and extending it as far as I could. Now: with the bucket raised up high to avoid the narrow spot, could I sneak the tractor around the turn? After about two hours of digging, that was the big question. If I could, I was in business for another ten or twelve feet, until I had to make the second (even narrower) turn. If I couldn't, we were done. I was out of ideas.

Success! I scooped up a nice, full bucket, brought it to the turn, raised the bucket WAAAAY up high, and eased the tractor forward around the turn on all that loose shoveled dirt as far as I dared. I want to fill the trench using the tractor, but not WITH the tractor if you accept the distinction. When I dumped the bucket (which was so high I ended up wearing half the contents, since the wind was coming up), every bit of dirt that fell down and didn't blow onto me fell past the fill and right into the hole.

So I'm back in business and can go back to just moving dirt for a while. It won't be a long while, because the second turn is narrower still. I think that part of the hillside will be easier to break up and knock into the hole, MAYBE making it possible to make the second turn.

Once I get the rear of the Dome's trench filled in and figure out how we're going to make that second turn, the rest is mere tedium. At least until it's time to actually cover the dome with dirt, because I don't have any idea how we're going to do that.

The good news is that I'm starting to think the whole job won't involve importing dirt. The excavated dirt is going a lot further than I feared it would.


MamaLiberty said...

I don't remember what it looks like now, but is there some way to drop the dirt from the top of the hill? Maybe after scraping it a bit flat? Then you'd have plenty of dirt to drop into the hole.

That was my first thought.

Remember that I know zero about earth moving or tractors... :) Just curious.

Joel said...

It was my first thought too, but it can't be done safely. The hillside over the trench at the rear of the dome is pretty steep. The brakes aren't so good.

And though I could maybe fill the back side of the trench that way, if I survived, it wouldn't help. There's a big section that needs to be filled between the far side of the dome and the power shed and the only way to get there is to drive around the back of the dome. It isn't accessible from the hillside at all because big parts of that are vertical. I'm starting to think we should have filled in the hole as much as possible and THEN built the front wall.

MamaLiberty said...

Oh dear... I hate when that happens. :)

Anyway... stay safe.