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Mud is Vanquished!

As of this evening, I will no longer be worried about storm water or working in mud.  This week has actually progressed at what could even be considered a professional schedule!

The E80 Bobcat arrived Monday morning and was quickly put to work removing the stockpiled dirt in the pit.  Even with the 15ft reach it still was not able to reach the bottom due to the slop of the pit walls.  So I would dig out as much as possible from the top and then use Alfie to consolidate the remaining soil and re-pile closer to the bank.

Tuesday was spent digging out the perimeter footing area near the bottom of the ramp.  This was an area that Diamond 11’s machine could not properly reach due to the angles, so there was quite a bit of digging.  Once this was generally complete, I had a large pile of dirt to get to the top again.  But before tackling it with the E80, I decided to see if I could lift down the skids of ICF.  I knew the E80 had the lift strength up close but was worried what would happen when I started reaching out over the edge and proceeded cautiously.  Well I found out in a hurry and it was not pretty. As soon as I got out over the top edge I felt the weight starting to pull me down and knew I had to just let her go.  Full joystick down and hope for the best.  The skid hung-up part way down the bank on the wire mesh which then allowed me to re-position my tracks and try to better stabilize with the front blade.  The end result was that the skid ended up lying on the side with two broken blocks.  Not bad but clearly I was not going to try this with the remaining 9 skids.  These will have to be moved by manual labour to the bottom of the pit but are not needed until after the footings are complete. I finished the day removing the last of the soil from the pit and stacking in two piles near the road.

Today I had two more loads of 3/4 crush slung into the pit which completed covering the pit floor.  I also covered the newly created back-fill piles in the front yard with plastic in advance of tomorrow’s rains.  It is thrilling and a great moral booster to no longer need to worry about the storm water, as it will now just build up below the gravel layer and then go back down when the pumps cycle.  This also allows me some mild movement with Alfie and I spent the rest of the day levelling the gravel in the footing zone for about 1/3 of the perimeter.

Regarding the footings, I have decided to go with the wrapped version.  This is somewhat easier to layout and now will allow me to also pour a stub foundation wall with the footing.  The significance of this is that I can start on the framing before pouring the basement slab.  This was not my original plan but is a good idea considering the delayed schedule and the winter weather we are now experiencing.  So this will allow a more traditional approach where I complete the sub slab plumbing and pouring slab after a lot of the framing is complete.

On the framing subject, my floor trusses are still in Quebec.  The shipper had a problem with a co-load, so the current plan is that they will be delivered next Tuesday.  I will now need to find a way to unload these 22ft long 1800 Lb bundles from a 53′ Van – Fun times.

I have been asked for a tour video of the job site and some pictures of various things I have been talking about.  I will try to get both of these done tomorrow. I have set up an electrical inspector visit tomorrow as I want to add in some additional plugs, some outdoor spot lights, and to re-energize the shop out back that has my compressor in it.  I will then start gathering the materials I need to start on the footing system.

Thanks for visiting.

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