Into the Earth

At 7.30 am it arrived. At 8.00 am the engine started. The digging begun. At that time, we had no idea of the challenges the day would bring. Ignorance truly is bliss.

A two ton fairy

The goal was to move 10 tons of soil to build the foundation for the terrace. An empty pallet on our backyard is becoming a very familiar looking sight.

So it begins

The dynamic duo, Pekka and Minna's brother Juha had a clear experience-based division of work - each would be responsible for what they know best: Juha was to focus on handling the excavator, whereas Pekka would focus his energy on the wheelbarrow. To know when they had reached sufficient depth, laser was once again handy.

Heavy-duty laser

Juha has been sharing his life with excavators since he was four years old. In his thirties, a life long dream finally came true and digging become a serious hobby for him, first with a rental equipment and ultimately with his own machine. Therefore, it was not very difficult to persuade him use a couple of his summer vacation days to come for a visit and do the digging for us.

Man and machine

No one knew what to expect - soil, rocks, construction waste...? One big tree stump for sure. Could be anything.

Hidden treasures

It was not expected it to be a walk-in-a-park project, but enough is enough. At some point during the day a moment came when the camel's back nearly broke. There had been other lesser problems with the excavator already earlier, but just when it was blocking the way to the pallet one of the tracks broke. There stood the yellow monster, and in split second, everything went on hold. For way too many hours.

Broken track

To make a long story short, challenges are meant to be overcome, and after a few hours of desperation, depression and determination Juha and Pekka were back on track again. And the digging continued.

And then there was a hole

In the end of the day, the first pallet was full. The nearly dead and buried wish of a new terrace had been brought to live again. Tomorrow is a new day, fingers crossed it will be better than this one.

Highway to heaven

As a small side note, we had a lovely visitor over today to see our place for the first time. Despite of the dust invading every nook and cranny of the place and the crazy mess in every single room, she very kindly complemented our place. Perhaps in a few weeks the place will be dust free again. Not for forever, but at least for a while.

Dust, everywhere