Strawberry House

When I got here a little over a month ago the housepad was almost done. It was all hand dug and the dirt was put into wheelbarrows and dumped pretty close, some not so close and down hill a bit. Most of the dirt which was dug out will be used to make the walls, some was hauled over to a near by housesite for use there and some was used to make a level terrace below the house. I helped dig the last bit to make a flat area to build on, then we started digging holes for footings, then mixing concrete to fill them and pouring it, then digging a drainage trench around the outside of the walls but under the eves to catch any ground water, and sloping the ground just inside it toward it and away from the house. (The first photo is from May 24th. The second photo is from today and you can see the first four posts have been put up and the trench is mostly full.)

Filling the trench is what we worked on today, it got filter fabric put in it then a three inch plastic pipe with perforations so water can get into it and flow way, the trench slopes down and drains away from the house, then lava rock was added on top of the pipe to fill the trench with a material water can easily drain through, then the filter fabric was folded over and more lava rock was added on top until it was about level with the dirt. The filter fabric is to keep excess dirt and silt from getting into the lava rock and clogging the air/water ways between the rocks. It was a bit of a workout, most of the lava rock was down the hill and over a bit so we shoveled it into wheelbarrows and pushed it up to the site, luckily it was lava rock so not so heavy but I was still out of breath by the time I finished wheeling it up each trip. We also tamped it into the trench with a heavy metal tamper, a long pole with a round piece of metal on the end which you lift and drop to compact dirt or rock or whatever, it helps move things around to eliminate extra air pockets