Excavation Update

Five hours of digging finished the major excavation–six inches of soil removed, cleaned, and spread around the site. I’ll remove another 6-8 inches along the center next and knock the sides down to a 30 degree slope. I had to transport most of the pebbles and cobbles up the hill, but some of it filled the inflow sluice (to the right in the image).

I found this soil tamper in the shed, left by the last owner. It does a great job compacting the relocated soil and isn’t too much work to use. And it’s a lot more efficient than walking around in circles to use my body weight.