Pictures to go with yesterday's post

I apologize that my post from yesterday was four pages long but it was because I sat down three times and started writing and never got to post any of them. Last night I compiled them all and put them into one really long post. I guess if a picture is worth a thousand words then these pictures should justify yesterday's text.

Here are some pictures of a couple of my latest projects:

Here is the trailer with 9000 feet of 1" pipe and 500 feet of 1.25" pipe ready and eager to be placed into a trench.

This was the first trench for the header into the house. Since my septic system pipe runs under this trench I was very careful and ended up hand digging a lot of it just to be on the safe side.

This is trench one which went down the left side of the drive, looking from the house. Note the greenery on the other side of the drive and refer back to it after seeing pictures from trench three and four.

Trench one on the way down the side of the drive.

Placing the piping into trench one.

My number one helper at the controls. After a few hours training he had it down and could fully operate the excavator as long as he was in my lap so his feet could reach the pedals.

Here he is up close...

Looking at the house from the end of trench one.

This is the start of trench two and three looking from the house end of the trench.

This is looking back up at the house from where trench two splits off of trench three.

Looking down trench two which went down the left side of the drive.

The barn in the background of trench two.

Looking from the house out at trench three. Refer back to the third picture to see the loss of vegetation.

Trench four with trench three on the right. Trench three hadn't been back filled as we were trying to save time by saving the final back fill for after all the trenches had been dug.

Looking at the house while digging trench four about 75' from the end of the trench.

Same location looking towards the end of trench four.

Navigating the mountain between trench three and four while trying to back fill.

We had to dig trench four right in front of our shed, I accidentally swung the boom around too fast and broke the awning away from the shed. I was thrilled as this created yet one more project.

This is me placing piping into trench four. The pipe is not real easy to work with as it retains a fair amount of memory from being coiled in a roll for so long.

From the deck looking at trenches five and six, trench three and four went on the right of the shed. The dog kennel used to be on the right side of the shed but had to move to a temporary location.

From the deck you could barely see the excavator on the hill in the background while digging trench five and six.

This was one of the trees that I really wanted to save while digging trenches five and six.

Working on trench six, Gordy was operating while I laid piping.

Looking back up trench six toward the house. There are two passes on the bottom ready to be covered with 18 to 20 inches of dirt so the two upper passes can be put in the trench.

This is Gordy working his way back up onto the pile to back fill the end of trench six.

Looking back at the barn from the end of trench six. Note the devastation and loss of vegetation. I have to plant some trees next year so we will have a little oxygen output left in the neighborhood

This gives a really good visual of how the pipe lays in the bottom of each trench.

Brian and Andrea's back porch timbers. I am really happy with how the tapered posts turned out.

This is Sydney sitting on the back porch after the trusses were put on the roof. Their back porch is going to be nice and tall.

The front porch with the set of test rafters on top to get an idea of how it will look.

The tapered posts on the front have braces (big challenge) and I think it turned out really good. Note the embellishments that Brian added to the garage, this is going to be a great looking house. They have already had a developer stop by to ask about the porch because he wants to incorporate details like theirs into his houses. Kind of cool.