3 July 2013

A decent day weather-wise, FINALLY!  Dug the trench for the first 70 feet of the waterfront power line conduit.  I did the first 30 feet and then turned the controls over to Chree… who immediately came up against an enormous boulder.  Fortunately there was just enough room to detour around its southern end.  After digging for awhile, Chree named the Kubota Sisyphus and said, “Digging in Leicester is like trying to put socks on an octopus!” Once the trench was dug, started laying conduit.  Got two 10-foot sections glued together when I remembered that we needed to run a line through the conduit with which to pull the electrical wires later.  Major head slap!  Have you ever tried to push a ¼″ nylon rope through a 90° bend and then down 20 feet of ¾″ conduit?  That weren’t goin’ t’ work!  So used the shop vac to suck a string through the conduit with which to pull the rope… which worked like magic!  The conduit’s closest point of approach to the (future) house is 8 feet from the southwest corner of the Sun Room.  The conduit is at least 10 feet below the baseline house elevation (top of the foundation walls) from where it crosses the lower access work road until it turns west, 25 feet west of the house west wall.  By sunset the trench was backfilled enough for the Kubota to escape back to the shed for the night and I was more than ready for a plunge in the lake, which is up to a perfect 78°F.  Chree and the dogs, meanwhile, were making sure that Dolores’ air conditioners were in proper working order.