Week Twelve

Week beginning 22nd August.

It’s Monday morning and the beginning of the end of the ground works. We received an email last night from Scottish Water to say our track inspection will be on Friday. This would be a huge problem for us because Lorne will be finished and there won’t be anyone to dig or backfill.

We have decided to send a picture of the hole and what we think is the water main but first we need to empty it of water.

We are very lucky because the man from Scottish Water has been very nice and very helpful and he phones back immediately. He tells us that this is not the water main but because we excavated where he indicated, he is coming to try and help us find the water main.

As soon as he arrives he gets out a digital device that seems to be satelite linked and it indicates the main is roughly where we have dug but our excavation is pretty deep and it’s not very likely the main will be deeper down. He decides to try more traditional techniques.

This technique gives much the same result so he tells us to dig deeper and if we don’t find it there maybe it’s closer to the road. So far we have avoided digging too close to the road because it is only a wee single track road and recently there have been quite a few big lorries along here, not only the ones delivering our concrete and stones. This makes us cautious because we don’t want the road collapsing into our excavation.

The Scottish Water man kindly agrees to inspect our track and plumbing since he’s here anyway and signs it off. This means Lorne can backfill the trenches and we can get on with finishing the groundworks. He also says if we find the water main to take a photo and he will arange for the connection tomorrow because the excavation is so close to the road. A great result!

As soon as the Scottish Water man leaves we start excavating again and then Des turns up and is intrigued by what we are up to. We dig deeper but still no sign of the water main so Pete gets into the trench and carefully starts digging out under the road with his spade. Not long after Des leaves Pete finally finds the water main, right under the road verge. We have to leave because we need to get tools for the next stage of the build which starts on Thursday so Lorne coontinues the excavation.

We send a photo of the pipe to the man from Scottish Water with a message to say that the hole is filling with water again and they’ll need a pump.

We get back from Oban around five and Lorne has finished landscaping the plot so the huge mound of soil is gone and we have a view again.

It’s Lorne’s last day and so the pressure is on to finish all the groundworks. We’ve just started working on fitting the last two storm drains when Pete gets a call from the Scottish Water man to say that if they need a pump we won’t get the connection until Friday. We ask: “What if we bale out the water by hand, could you do it today?” Luckily the answer is yes and we are overjoyed at the prospect of this water main saga being over.

We get back to helping Lorne finish the groundworks and fitting the storm drains.

Today the drive will be finished with type 1 stone and dust and compacted. The first load arrives but it has taken the driver over an hour to get here and it will be his lorry that will deliver the three loads needed. Lorne is concerned that this might cause delays.

Men arrive from Scottish Water to make the mains connection and to fit the boundary box. The boundary box allows the water to be turned off from the edge of the property. They are not remotely phased by the huge hole and the wee bit of water in it and happily get on making our connection.

It doesn’t take them long and off they go just leaving Lorne to back fill the excavation. Now that he’s done that there’s nothing really to see except if you look closely you can see the boundary box. Now we can stop worrying about the road collapsing into the hole and we won’t need to bale it out again.

While waiting for the next load of type 1 we decide to move the caravan so that we have more space for deliveries. We are expecting several in the next few days and weeks and space is of a premium.

We decide to move it manually but it isn’t easy because the new spot is on rough ground. We are struggling to move it at all when suddenly Lorne lifts the front wheel and the wole of the front of the caravan off the ground and shoves it forward. From here on in it’s easy. Pete says jokingly to Lorne: “Have you been in ‘The World’s Strongest Man’?”

So finally after five and a half weeks of digging and assembling and concreting and meshing and hard, hard physical effort our groundworks are complete. Most of this was achieved by just Molly, Pete and Lorne but it wouldn’t have been possible without Andrew, Kevin, Iain, Mathew, Des, the man from Scottish Water and his colleagues, who went above and beyond the call of duty and the delivery drivers.

We owe a special thanks to Lorne who worked so hard on our project and so generously allowed the three of us to work as a proper team. Lorne you are a star.