Oh boy, a big hole in the ground (Day 3 of 273)

Well, we just committed to putting a big hole in the Vashon Till (ca. 15,000 yrs old, glacial till that was overridden by 1,000 m of ice). Its a gravelly silty sand (USGS analysis) with clasts as much as 30-40 cm (1.2-1.4 ft) in diameter. Light gray, unstratified, and hard to dig owing to all the prior icy overburden. Although there is now sign of it, I have a side bet with the concrete guy about clay--he says we'll hit some, and I don't see any reason why. Should be a interesting if he's right.

Anyway, the excavating is about half the total cost ($6200) and the other half is hauling away 300 cubic yards of material to some unknown destination (another hole, probably). You say, just what is 300 cubic yards? Well, think of a layer 1 ft thick, 10 ft wide, and 900 ft long (a nice long road base).

A large backhoe is supposed to arrive on Monday and have at it. By Monday night, the basement should be dug and the spoils removed. On Tuesday, about 400 cubic yards will come out of the two crawl spaces; half will go out front for a long, wide berm and the other half will be used to backfill around the foundation at the end of November. Hopefully my math will work out; extra haulage is about $10/yd and those yards pile up quickly. Cement guys arrive Wed., Nov. 5 to survey in the footers. Mrs Obama should be measuring for drapes that morning. Oh boy, we're having fun now.

Here are a few pictures of the site after clearing and house layout. Nancy, all 5'2" of her is in both pictures. The second one shows the two cedars and huckleberry bush that we managed to save, near the entrance to the house. Dirt flies tomorrow (Friday).