One slip and you're in the........

Posted by Simon

......Quagmire. Yes I should have i) read my own blog - re area being a quagmire - and ii) known better. I had nearly finished the back-filling and compacting the soil down. Running the digger over the area had made it very boggy but I decided to give it that one last go. One side of the digger suddenly lurched with a downwards motion and was then sinking into the mud. One of the support/upright sleepers was not into the ground as deep as I would have liked, due to a huge root, and gave way. Fortunately the rest of the sleepers held but whilst I pulled the digger out they did move. As it was nearly dark by now I could not see the extend of the damage and was hoping I could pull it all back over and re-strengthen it.

So yesterday morning I spent a few moments seeing if I could make the necessary repairs but overall things were worse then I thought. So after a lot of pondering I decided that a major rebuild was required. I was a little disappointed because it had been lot of hard work and, also, a little annoyed with myself.

However I decided it was, also, a blessing in disguise. In hindsight I should have not used the old sleepers for the supports/uprights. So yesterday I spent the day digging out the soil and removing the sleepers. I have now been re-building, using the new sleepers for the uprights plus putting these in much deeper (once bitten twice shy?). I am much happier with the results and, although this has been extremely heavy work, will result in a much better job. As you can see from the photo I have had to use sleepers to run the digger over otherwise it gets bogged down and sinks. I do not want to slide into the neighbouring field

This morning I knew I had to start digging out the hole with the root in it. By chance the chainsaw had an old chain on it so I did not mind it being used on the root. Even so I had to sharpen it three times to get through the root due to embedded stones and soil. Not the best use for a chainsaw but eventually I cut the root out. I can now dig this hole to the correct depth, but due to very heavy rain work has stopped. Oh well, I'll tidy the workshop instead.