During the excavation of our basement floor and foundation drain we accumulated a large quantity of sandy soil. We’ve been pondering about what to do with the dirt for last year or two. We thought of getting a skip (dumpster), finding someone who wanted dirt (people do) and then we realised that we had the perfect spot for it at the back of our garden – don’t know why we didn’t think of this earlier.
Aimee kindly took on this task and over the last 6 weeks or so has been slowly moving the soil, two small buckets at a time. It’s been a long slog, especially in the hot humid weather we’ve been having, but it’s a good work out.
I didn’t start recording this until Aimee had removed about a foot of dirt from in front of the garage and I accidentley deleted the last video when we finally cleared the driveway.
It’s nice to have reclaimed our driveway and make our property a bit more presentable and we’re also hoping to remove the dirt from the front of the house as well.
Well done Aimee, what a difference that makes.
Yes it is nice to get it cleared 🙂
That’s a lot of hauling dirt and Aimee is one busy bee! Two aspirin at the end of the day to prevent muscle ache comes to mind. What happened to the wheelbarrow hauling – was the slope or path behind the house too intense for it?
Thanks Elizabeth for the aspirin tip, I’ll pass it along. A wheel barrow probably would have been the best way and the slope could have been improved to make it easier, but Aimee preferred the buckets. The reason I’m not helping with the dirt is that I’m doing other stuff in the house, just in case you think I’m taking it easy! Wheel barrows rock!!!!!
I am extra impressed that Aimee moved earth and mountain via buckets, when a WB could have been employed! Similarly, I had a lot of yardwork to complete, and my husband got an extra sturdy cart which could be pulled by hand or attached to a riding mower to replace my rickety wheelbarrow. After using the sturdy cart with greater hauling capacity once or twice, I found it was too heavy to move well over uneven spots on the lawn, and went back to using my rickety wheelbarrow. I also have several empty 5 gallon joint compound buckets which I favor over either the WB or heavy cart for hauling, though.
Front of the house soil removal required a step up so not really suitable for a WB. Sure we could have put a plank down but Aimee isn’t the best at stability and she would have come a cropper. Yes it is pretty impressive what can be moved a little at a time, just shows that all the small jobs we do, do add up. The 5 gallon buckets when loaded are just too heavy for both of us and they bang against your legs etc. The small ones suited Aimee just right.
We did use a WB when we were shifting stuff on the flatish lawn behind and I did the WBing and for most shifting jobs on flatish ground it would be my choice.
Thanks for your feedback!
How did David get away with just filming the work?
Someone had to sit in the hammock!!! Actually I was working on front door and finishing off the floor joists.