It's been a couple / few years since I really put some time into this thread, so I hope people that were following haven't given up entirely. I certainly haven't! Lots of updates to make in the next little while regarding what amounts to finally getting some big progress on
earthworks (plus all the related subsequent growies and systems). This is a big part of why the updates stopped for a few years, but the other part of that was just sheer laziness. Takes work to write a bunch of posts with photos and edit videos
So back in 2019, I had someone in with a big excavator to do what I was calling "the big dig", but perhaps I
should have been calling it something else. After all, Boston's "big dig" turned into quite an expensive fiasco, and so did mine.
Despite some very
concrete plans on what, where, how and on what budget, things quickly went sideways, leaving me with:
berms of topsoil in the wrong placesa half-built but significantly smaller than expected "cabin pad"no driveway to access the "pad"two dangerously deep "pond" pits where the perch pond should have been - I was surprised to not find deer and moose drowning in them!a non-functional "blueberry pond"no huglekulture bedsno piles of clay ready for the cobwood cabin build
Understandably, the person I hired was having some major issues with his machine, so that ate up some time. Problem is, he charged me for some of that time (not all), then cut things short without completing anything I brought him out for. Not understanding things, he offered to come in with a heavy bulldozer the next year to finish things, even though I kept trying to explain a bulldozer is not the machine needed for the excavation work I needed. We're not building a road, here!
So, after going into a funk for a year and scratching my head / beating it against pads of grid paper until it hurt, I was able to rework some
plans (such as the cabin design and blueberry pond beaches, etc) as well as put together some money to "just rent a dang backhoe" and "do it myself". This was a one month rental in summer 2020.
Thousands of dollars later, I had a half-finished perch pond, a workable blueberry pond, a servicable cabin pad, three long (but less tall than hoped) huglekulture berms, around half the clay I need for the cobwood cabin build, a pasture pond and driveway access. The big surprise here was that these machines are INCREDIBLY easy to use once you get the controls down, and not scary to use at all.
Like so many other things I've encountered since moving out to The Camp, this sort of work is something a person really does need to learn to do themselves. No one else can see the image in your mind. If you want to bring your earthworks plans to a reality, you HAVE TO DO IT YOURSELF! I'm sure hiring someone with
permaculture experience would make a big difference if you really don't want to be running the machine, but nothing will ever beat doing the job yourself.
And oh the money I could have saved just doing it myself from the start!
Live and learn