bob the builder 3

BOB THE BUILDER 3

For years minions had been recommending a backhoe to quickly dig a pit for living, whereas I was so broke ( minimum wage, two wives to support ) I dug the thing by hand, a grand total of about $75 for a shovel and Maddox pick and a cheap wheelbarrow.  A backhoe would have been two to three grand.  And that is the first thing I’d do to improve things, hire the machine to dig a ten by thirty hole six to eight foot deep.  That would give me three times the living space of the current B-POD which would make all the difference in the world.  You might look at your palatial McMansion and note your walk in closet is almost two hundred square feet and fail to imagine how anyone could be comfortable in there, but I’m used to underground living in 75 square feet, or travel trailer living of 200.  Even living in town right now we only have 400 square feet and most of that is wasted space through poor design ( a house was turned into a tri-plex for rental income, so most rooms are compromises and afterthoughts ).  If I could take the square footage of a travel trailer and build it to my specifications, trailers designed for traveling and not really for living, that space would be for me more than enough. 

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Now, three grand might be too much.  Two would be an extravagance ( and that is me only paying half for a total of one thousand ).  My plan then would be to take whatever I could afford and tell the guy to dig a trench ten foot long and eight deep and then start working out towards that hypothetical thirty foot long, all the while working in chunks down to the bottom ( depth rather than length being the priority ).  If you are digging a pit by hand, you do NOT want to scrape off the top the whole sized hole continuously.  Digging straight down is hard work.  You dig your first trench down to the bottom ( keeping in mind you don’t want it so narrow it can cave in on you.  I like knowing I can survive those.  Down to eight foot, I’d go a minimum six feet across.  This way, while the first hole is a bitch, digging straight down, the rest of the digging is relatively easier.  Because you are going across from the bottom and when you swing your pick sideways at the bottom, gravity collapses all that above the indentation.  Rather than breaking up soil laboriously every inch down you are working hard the first foot then the other seven feet just need a gentle reminder that nothing is holding them up ( if your soil is very wet, this is dangerous and does not apply.  I’m speaking from experience with bone ass dry clay and sand ).  Your main work is pushing the dirt up to the top ( research, Low Tech Magazine, the Chinese wheelbarrows that are designed better and which require less work-although if I recall correctly they might be two man units ).  If money is tight for the backhoe, spend what you have letting the machine do the hardest work.

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