My buddy with the excavator came out again the other day.  He was able to dig some of the foundation out for me (more on that soon) but had to run to another thing he had going on.  Bravely, he left the excavator for me to use to dig additional footers for my pump house.

I have run an excavator exactly one other time and that was somewhere around 2001…and that was only for 20 minutes…and it was on flat land at our place in Nashville.  Here in West-by-God-Virginia (the one true Virginia…sorry East Virginia), there is nary a piece of flat land to be found.

So, my buddy left and I went to town.  The basics of running an excavator are not hard but the devil is in the details.  I guess I ran the machine for about 3 hours and dug an ugly but usable footer for the pump house and was able to move a little additional dirt out of the way.  I had a good time doing it and didn’t get bored for even a second.  I also felt like I was still on the machine 8 hours later, swinging the arm back and forth bumping and bouncing.

I think one thing I have learned in building this house is that folks who do any sort of construction work are probably under-appreciated.  It’s hard to run an excavator well.  It’s hard to make sure walls are plumb and it’s hard to cut miters.  I think that is why Emily and I are building this ourselves and why we are particularly proud of how things are turning out.  I also appreciate that I do not have to do this every single day!