The big news - the trenches are done! We rented another mini excavator and spent a week digging and installing the last 100 ft of the power/data trench and our 80 ft trench for the well. Both are inspected and filled in.
The more digging, the more water we found. This made my humble equipment even harder to use.
This has been a really wet year so we were wading in mud. The kind of mud that makes you lose your boots. The power trench required bailing multiple times. Several inches of water repeatedly collected in this low spot near the pole. I would bail it out and it would refill.
Thanks to our hay bales in the end of the trench from last year we were easily able to find the end where we needed to connect.
Conduit sweeps are on the pole and bonded. We put the risers on and backfilled so it is ready for the power company.
Last fall we did most of the power trench and left the end accessible to continue it when our power pole was installed. Read about the start of our digging HERE. The power company installed the pole in the spring but to save some money we wanted to line up a few projects before renting the heavy machinery. It costs a flat fee to rent the machine so it makes sense to use it for multiple projects.
The well is done and the water tank is installed.
We are waiting to drop the pump in the well until spring. Everything is ready for it but it doesn't make sense to start the warranty on a pump that can't be powered, in a barn that doesn't have interior walls, in a tack room currently without heat. The warranty begins the day they put it in the well so we will wait until spring. We are hopeful that we can finish off the interior on nicer days as we head into winter.
We had a flurry of activity these last few weeks despite very rainy muddy conditions. Mr. Dometastic used big boy sand box toys while I was stuck with the more humble equipment and a sore back.
The well trench had to have a couple of extra bends to get around some very large rocks but things went pretty smoothly.
There aren't any pictures of us filling anything in because we were in a crunch to get it done before it rained (again) and ultimately snowed on us. Mr. Dometastic did some at night by himself and I spent a few hours in the skid steer one morning filling in the rest. All I have are the finished photos.
We finally installed the last bit of remaining trim on the barn. The outside is officially done with the exception of some special order compression conduit parts that need to go on the outside for the meter panel.
The rough electrical is finished as well with the exception of the special connectors and the breaker box. As soon as the meter box is all set we can have the town come out and sign off on the electric connection. When that happens the power company can come out and pull wires and we will be electrified!
The well is done and the water tank is installed.
We are waiting to drop the pump in the well until spring. Everything is ready for it but it doesn't make sense to start the warranty on a pump that can't be powered, in a barn that doesn't have interior walls, in a tack room currently without heat. The warranty begins the day they put it in the well so we will wait until spring. We are hopeful that we can finish off the interior on nicer days as we head into winter.
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