Last Thursday evening, I dug a 100′ ditch next to the green house.
. It is part of our 2010 clean-up project. We are going to install landscape fabric on the east side of the green house and put up a washing and packing shed for vegetables. But first, we have to install a underground irrigation line to send water to the fields.
Our current “temporary” water line has been laying on top of the ground for 3-4 years and is always in danger of being mowed or tilled in two.
My neighbor Carl and I had planned on going in together to rent a ditch witch for a day this winter and put a few thousand feet of water line in on our respective farms. But as you know, it has been a little moist since November.
My immediate need was to bury 100′ of new water line so we can lay down the landscape fabric. I could do that with tools on hand, a single shank sub-soiler and a trenching shovel.
Using the sub-soiler was easy, I was on the tractor. I made 4 passes with the sub-soiler, even stopped to switch out the chisel point to a wider sub-soiler attachment that would hopefully remove more dirt from the ditch. I am lazy.
It finally got to a point where I had to get off the tractor and use the trenching shovel. The trenching shovel is basic. No on/off switch and only two apps, left hand and right hand. Dig down, lift up, toss to the side. After 20′ feet of that, I was huffing and puffing, it was 5:30 pm and I decided I needed to go to Lowe’s to buy supplies to supplement the automated green house watering equipment the UPS guy delivered.
I had planned on finishing the ditch Friday, but it had started to sprinkle on the way home from Lowe’s and I did not want to take the chance of dealing with mud rather than dirt, so I finished the ditch around dark on Thursday. I have not used the ditch shovel in over a year. Now I remember why.
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