Happy New Year - anybody have a backhoe?

I hope everyone is having a great new year. Mine has been fairly busy and fun.

An Eventful past few weeks, what with Skiing at St. Edwards State Park(how often can you downhill ski along the hills of Lake Washington?). I rang in the New Year with my housemates filling shop vacs with water. We invented a new sport of vacume cleaner races as we tried to keep the house from flooding. Those of you that are bored and looking for something to do this weekend are welcome to bring shovels (I have a backhoe coming in Saturday morning to dig a trench 8 feet deep by 90 feet long) to help paint asphalt on the walls and shovel gravel into the trench. Anyone that isn't interested in shoveling as a method of getting those paddling muscles in shape may want to consider a stress relief paddle trip on Lake Washington Sunday afternoon. Let me know if you're interested - Thanks Saul.

Get those paddling muscles in shape - Work Party at Sauls

Awesome upper body workout plan - Shovel Gravel at Saul's

With all the wonderful precipitation last week, my basement flooded. With my being a bit of an overkill type of person, I decided to make sure it never happens again. I brought in a backhoe & dug trenches 9 feet deep around the house & then dug a drain field, then I filled the drain field with gravel and ran pipes to & through it. I then coating the foundation with asphalt and plastic to seal it, and then laid drain tile. I still have 1.5 more dump trucks worth of gravel to put into the trenches around the house, before the rain starts and collapses them.

I am having wheelbarrow races (actually gravel hauling) parties on Monday; Wednesday and Saturday with food, brew, wine & hot tubbing for all who help.

I will be starting on Monday & Wednesday at about 3:30pm and working until 7:30pm.

Saturday I will start around 10am & work until 3:00pm and then we can go kayaking on Lake Washington or run on the Burke or at St Edwards and I'll treat a few rounds at the PUB down there.

Update on excavation project at Sauls - Push the dirt in Party on Saturday

Just in case you wondered how things are going. With a thanks to:

Geoff Combs; Colin Peters; Linda Moul; Kim Christoferson; Dan Hippe; Dan Golich; Angela Anderson; Chuck Volper and my brother Viktor,

the ditch has been dug, drain pipes wrapped and installed, foundation painted with asphalt, gravel hauled in (about 3 feet deep) and about 1/3 of the ditch has been filled back in with dirt.

That means that the wheelbarrow races have been finished, (Dan Hippe emerged victorious) and all that remains is a Pitch the dirt back in the hole Party; scheduled for 2pm-4:30pm on Saturday followed by a Bar-b-Que.