All the excavation machinery has arrived." Choking down our oatmeal, grabbing our hats and cameras we dashed over to the scene. Peter followed with chain saw because he still had to take down the 2 ornamental crab apple trees in front of the house. By the time we arrived huge machinery was already crawling all over the property. There was a powerful little bobcat on tank treads and a heavy duty CAT backhoe scrapping the top soil from the yard and storing it on the other side of the garage to use later for back fill. Once that was accomplished trenches were dug next to the foundation for heavy timber cribs that will support the lifting girders. There was nothing for Chris and I to do but stand by and watch. And it was sobering to see the landscape change before our eyes. Suddenly it didn't look like the place that we know and love. But there were 3 moments of excitement. The first came when the 20 ton dump truck narrowly missed collapsing into the old cesspool. Chris rushed to the scene to warn the driver that he was close to a disaster. Fortunately he was able to back up and drive away avoiding the hazard. The next problem was the discovery that the level at which the engineer had specified placement of the crib was into the water table. The digging came to a halt while the foreman called Paul to find out what to do. It was discovered through a quick call to the engineer that we could relax because he had put the crib 10 inches lower than it needed to be. So that 10 inches put it above the water table. Finally we got a surprise visit from the gas company who we thought might put a stop to the excavation work because they were having to dig so close to the gas line. But he simple put another yellow warning flag in the ground, sprayed some yellow paint and was on his way. When Chris and I left at 5 o'clock the excavation team was close to being ready to install the jacks and girders. Tomorrow will see the building levitate.
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