My Ditch Diggin' Husband

This is him, my ditch diggin' husband.  He dug a ditch.  From our house to the river.  Just him and his shovel.








Just kidding. We rented a Ditch Witch.






 What in the world is a ditch witch?  I don't know, but when I googled it images like this popped up:
 
 Michael picked up this bad boy from Four Star Rental for a measly $120-you'll see later why I think $120 is measly.  He, along with my Uncle Steve, got right to work.  Thank goodness for "Saint" Steve (which I will henceforth be referring to him as).  He worked all week on our house, late into the evening to get the drywall done and what does he do?  Volunteers to help Michael dig ditches on Saturday.  He. Is. A. Saint. (Therefore: Saint Steve). 

Anyway, I missed out on all the fun because I was sleeping during the day due to working the previous night.  But as soon as I was woke up, I was out there to see what they had been up to.

Ditch #1

 

Ditch #1 goes from the river to the house.  This ditch is to accommodate the drain for our geothermal system.  If you don't know what in the world I am talking about, you can learn more about our geothermal system by reading this blog post. 

When they got down to the river's edge, Michael did have to dig the rest of the ditch manually because they didn't want to get the Ditch Witch stuck in the muck. Then would it be called a Muck Witch?  That doesn't have the same ring to it.

And here he is with the final product.  The black drainage pipe is going to be buried up until it gets to this cement (concrete?) block.  This is where the water from our geothermal unit is discharged into the river.  That sounds a little sketchy, huh?  Don't worry.  We got the go ahead from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and our local DNR.  The water is exactly the same water that comes from our well.  No more, no less - although possibly a degree or two different from the temperature of the river water.  But even still, there is no environmental impact by discharging the water into the river! Woot!

I think Michael had a really good time getting this project underway.  Here's why I think that:

1. He got to use a cool piece of equipment (i.e. the ditch witch)

2. He got to wear waders and get all muddy.. I mean if that ain't a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon, I don't know what is!

3. He got to explore our property in ways we haven't been able to yet.  (see below)

That's Michael, standing in the river where the water comes up to his abdomen... trusty shovel in hand so he doesn't get stuck.  Because I told him, there was no way I was coming out there to rescue him!

Ditch #2

 Ditch # 2 is basically boring.  There's not much else to say other than we dug it to bury our internet wiring.

Which leads me to the next topic...

Why is $120 spent on renting a Ditch Witch considered measly?

Because we saved a ton of money doing it ourselves.  New Paris Cable alone said they would charge us $350 to bury the internet line for us.  So we already made back our money from that.  Plus we saved money by not having our Geothermal installers dig the ditch for the geothermal system which we estimate they probably would have charged us >$500.  Woo hoo! So we saved an estimated $730! That is super helpful since we are about to purchase the tile for our bathroom!

 And check out this awesomeness! That's a completely dry walled entryway - looking at it from the living room.

The mudder/taper is finishing this week! But more on that later!

Plus! What do you all think about the face lift for the blog?! I'm diggin it... ha! Appropriate pun!

Have a great week everybody!