Both digger & skip arrived on friday, the skip whilst I was out running a (pointless) errand, though thankfully the electricians were in so they signed for it. I got a prettty brief description of how the digger worked from the hire delivery driver, and then was left to it.
A small amount of trench was started on friday afternoon/evening, on reaching the required depth the first things I dug up were a ceramic drain, and several tonnes of bricks. I get the impression tha the foundations and plumbing from the old huts of the POW camp were simply buried under about a foot of topsoil, and also fairly well embedded in the clay that this place is built on. There also appeared to be a fairly uniform layer of flat sandstone-coloured stones at between 12 and 18inches deep, I'm guessing these may be the old floors of the huts.
Alas no buried treasure, secret tunnels or other interesting WW2 artifacts were found.
Saturdays digging was a lot more productive, having mastered (to a point) the controls, and also knowing what to expect down there, progress was a little more rapid. S spent a large amount of the day sifting through what I'd dug up, removing the larger stones, bricks, and slabs of concrete. When she got bored of that, she set to pruning the pampas, in preparation for it's final destruction.
My brother & his wife showed up about 5ish with his chainsaw then chopped down the remains of the dead cherry tree, chopping it up into nice, fire sized logs which we put aside for when we get a working fireplace again. He then set about chopping up the pampas grass with the chainsaw, which he admitted was a first for him.
Mid pruning a wasps nest was found in the pampas, which we dispatched with a gas-torch. We then had to extinguish the pampas which, as you can imagine, burned pretty well - this was mostly out of concern for the phone line that ran above it.
Once the last of the trench was dug, or could be dug with the digger, it was then turned over to digging up the remains of the pampas, of which everyone had a go, but my Sister-in-law proved the most proficient.
We wound things up around 8ish, scrubbed up, and headed off for a curry.
The following day was started with a trip to our favourite DIY stoer to buy wall insulation, which they didn't have, and look at doors, which they did have, but we didn't buy. The afternoon was spent tidying up the remains of the trench, extracting a lump of concrete from under the hedge at the front of the garden, as well as breaking up the concrete path immediately in front of the house under the meter box. Meanwhile S set to removing the odd shaped glass from between the living room and the stairs, this we will replace with glass-bricks or something similar, we think.
A small amount of trench was started on friday afternoon/evening, on reaching the required depth the first things I dug up were a ceramic drain, and several tonnes of bricks. I get the impression tha the foundations and plumbing from the old huts of the POW camp were simply buried under about a foot of topsoil, and also fairly well embedded in the clay that this place is built on. There also appeared to be a fairly uniform layer of flat sandstone-coloured stones at between 12 and 18inches deep, I'm guessing these may be the old floors of the huts.
Alas no buried treasure, secret tunnels or other interesting WW2 artifacts were found.
Saturdays digging was a lot more productive, having mastered (to a point) the controls, and also knowing what to expect down there, progress was a little more rapid. S spent a large amount of the day sifting through what I'd dug up, removing the larger stones, bricks, and slabs of concrete. When she got bored of that, she set to pruning the pampas, in preparation for it's final destruction.
My brother & his wife showed up about 5ish with his chainsaw then chopped down the remains of the dead cherry tree, chopping it up into nice, fire sized logs which we put aside for when we get a working fireplace again. He then set about chopping up the pampas grass with the chainsaw, which he admitted was a first for him.
Mid pruning a wasps nest was found in the pampas, which we dispatched with a gas-torch. We then had to extinguish the pampas which, as you can imagine, burned pretty well - this was mostly out of concern for the phone line that ran above it.
Once the last of the trench was dug, or could be dug with the digger, it was then turned over to digging up the remains of the pampas, of which everyone had a go, but my Sister-in-law proved the most proficient.
We wound things up around 8ish, scrubbed up, and headed off for a curry.
The following day was started with a trip to our favourite DIY stoer to buy wall insulation, which they didn't have, and look at doors, which they did have, but we didn't buy. The afternoon was spent tidying up the remains of the trench, extracting a lump of concrete from under the hedge at the front of the garden, as well as breaking up the concrete path immediately in front of the house under the meter box. Meanwhile S set to removing the odd shaped glass from between the living room and the stairs, this we will replace with glass-bricks or something similar, we think.
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