I have to admit that I haven’t been able to devote as much time to the trench as I’ve wanted the last couple of weeks, but I have been able to get some good work in. Here’s a picture of the current state of the rubble trench. The part of the trench in the top left corner of the picture is 12 inches deep, and is sloping at about a 5 percent grade.
We have had some serious rains lately, and so far I’ve decided on not having any kind of roof, or tarp, covering the site. So the site has been pretty muddy a lot of the time, and full of standing water some days. But it hasn’t been too much of a problem yet, and it does make the digging easier, giving the mattock the ability to take out large chunks of earth with a single swing. I’ve had the opportunity recently to help a friend of mine dig the foundation trench to his future cob house, and it was great to see and experience someone else’s building process. He started roof first, and his site sits in contrast to mine with its dusty dryness. There seems to be pros and cons to each. His ground was rock hard, and much more difficult to dig. But it was easier to maneuver around at times, and I did appreciate the ability to wear shoes without quickly having 5 inches of mud stuck to the soles. I’ve been too annoyed with shoes at my place, and have been digging barefoot, except when I slip a croc onto my left foot when it’s time to shovel the clay out of the trench. As I get into more grading work with the trench, though, I might decide to cover the site if some heavy rains are in the forecast.
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I couldn’t stand the thought of accidentally chopping them to pieces with the mattock, so I ended up spending the next hour picking all the worms out of the trench. I eventually moved hundreds of worms into our hugelkultur raised beds, but only after spending some quality time with them.
earthen acres 