"When you see the machine dig you'll never want to dig by hand again"

Wise words from my grandpa when I was talking to him about how we were going to be building the root cellar. There was talk of using the backhoe but that wouldn't give us very straight edges and there would be a lot of hand finishing the hole. The backhoe would also require space for the stabilizers to be stretched out on either side and it's turning radius when in place really limited where we could put the soil.

In comes neighbor Kevin to the conversation and he offers up his Skid Steer; makes a call to his buddy that does landscaping and borrows a bucket.

Wow! He was one with the machine! I wasn't timing it but it was in less than an hour he dug out the side of the hill. It was awesome!

Groundbreaking!

Dang that's a lot of dirt! Look at all that healthy topsoil and rich clay! They should farm here ;P

That's me reading last night on the back of the first car I ever drove (way back when I was 15), my grandpa's farm truck.

Tomorrow we're going to the hardware store at 8am to get materials to build the formwork for the footing (and hopefully get rebar or find out where to get it). I will also call the concrete guy again if I don't here back from him today. We need about 2 yards of concrete and based on an online calculator that's equivalent to more than 109- 60# bags of ready mix concrete... We'll be calling a truck for sure!

Tonight I finally get to play some boardgames, I'm all excited but these boys still have work to do! I can't blame them really, the weather is beautiful :)