[Cob] re: building east of the mississippi

[Amanda Peck]

I hear you on heavy equipment doing more damage than good.  Although I 
lucked out when I hired a bulldozer and operator to run a small road down 
where the barn is now.  Unfortunately he's out of the dozer business just 
now.

As far as I know the tractor mounted augers are fine to use, although it 
would be slightly quicker to have two people working to get the job done.  
Just those 1- and 2-man gas-powered jobs.  And if they screw up, it has a 
lot to do with what the soil looks like.

Around here, the rental Ditch Witches are equipped with hardened teeth and 
supposed to go through anything but inches of limestone rock, no problem at 
all with clay with big rocks in it.  Fancine's clay is a lead pipe cinch for 
one, almost certainly for whatever she can rent in her area.  People who 
rent machinery tend to make sure that the pieces don't sit around waiting 
for repairs from what ought to be normal use.

Francine and I are only around 50 miles apart.  I don't recognize much in 
her description of her land.
............
Francine wrore (snipped):
.........I got a young man
with a back hoe to come and help.  Unfortunately, those
things move a lot of dirt and fast, it was more than I
bargained for and now I am having to do more work to
correct the mistakes.  It wasn't his fault, just me
underestimating what that thing would do.  Now I know why
the books recommend using hand tools and working slowly.

The auger sounds too dangerous for me.  My neighbor has a
tractor and he may be able to give me more advice on that.
Thanks for mentioning it.  I am in North East corner of MS
and our soil here is a good mix of clay and sand, 1 part
clay to 2 parts sand.  There is a sand pit that I will haul
from for adding to that.  My building site is on a slope
with a mix of soil and some gravel, it drains very well and
isn't that hard to dig, unless I run into a major vein of
clay, and that does happen.  I am wondering if that clay
might be a problem for the ditch witch.