[Lynn]

Finally dried out enough by late June that I could trench. Time to rent a trencher.

What a beast. Pull start motor that tended to kick back from time to time.

Because the ground was so soggy, I had to lay boards on top for the trencher to ride on. We saved the worst section for last; right by the well. I was about 1/3 of the way through, when one of the boards slipped out. The trencher immediately sunk into the wet clay about a foot on that side. It was hopelessly stuck…. Well almost. It was 9 p.m. on Sat. nite. I had been trenching since 8 a.m. Well, to be fair, I picked the trencher up at 8. Probably didn’t start using that “spawn of satan” machine for another hour or so. The trencher was tilted about 30 degrees in the mud. Trying to get it out under its own power was futile. I dug down under the sunken track, and was able to insert a 2x8 under it; Still would not pull out on its own. So, I tied several ratchet straps to it, hooked it up to the tractor that was over on concrete flooring, and gave Sherri some quick tractor driving lessons. With Sherri pulling, and me giving it all the gas and pulling for all I am worth, after three attempts, we got it moving. It took me nearly an hour at the car wash and about 25 quarters to get all the mud off of it. I finished up about midnight; had to have the trencher back to the rental place at 8 a.m. Sunday morning. How bad to I want this shop?

Sorry, but no pics of this disaster. We were both too engaged in surviving the day to stop and take pics.

All the trenches had standing water. But, they were all draining into the pipe I had laid next to the building, so we were on the right track. The next two weekends were all about lining the trenches with landscape fabric, putting in a base of 1.5 inch gravel, laying the perforated pipe, connecting all the pipes, covering with gravel, then closing in the fabric, filling with dirt, then hand tamping it all down. I also installed a permanent automatic sump pump in the well, and plumbed two inch PVC into the drainage pipes. The pump comes on about once every 15 minutes for maybe 6 seconds at a time. The drain pipe going down the South side of the building to the West of the building drained constantly (not a drip mind you, a slow continuous pouring of water 24 – 7) and the place started drying out. We got a couple more heavy rains. Sadly, there was one area that would still collect water. So, I hand dug one more trench in that area, dug up some of the previously installed pipes, and connected it all together. We had in excess of 380 foot of perforated drain pipe in all. After the next heavy rain, I was really anxious when I went down to check on things. Finally, the entire dirt floor area was dry, even after a heavy rain. There was hope.