We have a big hole!

The excavator showed up early yesterday morning at the property. Newt and I explained to him what we were looking to build and how it would sit in the ground. He set up a laser level and made some measurements. Then he adjusted a sensor on a long pole, so that they could check that the bottom of the hole was the same height everywhere.

Here as the early morning sun peeks through the trees, the great hulking beast begins to burrow :-)

Jerry was the gentleman driving the track hoe, tearing into the frosty ground. First he dug down to the correct depth in on direction from the first corner.

Here he is checking to see if he is deep enough.

Digging deeper.

Then after he got a space dug in that direction that was deep enough, he moved around, and started digging in the other direction out of the corner.

 Digging toward the west now.

By later in the morning, the two corners on the east side of the house, were dug out, and he was working on making a very large hole, and some very large piles of dirt.

A little after 11am, and there is a big enough hole to drive a delivery truck into.

3 hours later, and Jerry can almost hide the track hoe behind the dirt piles.

Jerry continued to get a level floor in the bottom of the hole.

Here I am in my future kitchen, looking toward where the family room will be.

The shadows are getting long. Time to call it a day.

When we left, they said they had about an hour left to finish the excavation. So most likely by the time you read this, the excavation for my home will be complete. It was a fun day watching, what I had imagined in my head, finally start to take shape. There were some frustrations, and delays. Jerry found that no one can reach him on his cell phone at my property. He almost ran out of fuel, and the other gentleman who showed up, had to go get some diesel so Jerry could keep working. Some of the bearings were squeaking, and Jerry found that they had not left the grease gun where they were supposed to. But over all, it went quite well.

This morning, I am anxiously awaiting delivery of the solar panels. I haven't heard from the company in Florida again, but the freight company contacted me about arranging a time for the delivery. They could show up between 8am and noon.