There are certain things in life I would never want to repeat again. Digging four 14m trenches is most certainly one of those things.
In eight days, my task seemed relatively simple. Four trenches (14m in length, a metre wide and 0.6m deep) had to be dug, with all of the excavated soil being placed around the perimeter in a series of neat mounds. A few of the days would see my parents out amongst the chaos with me, helping me both physically and psychologically. This is, after all, manual labour which if one's not careful, can eat away at your determination. It can leave you contemplating your decisions, and slowly you become more despondent.
Out of the ground...into the barrow...out of the ground...into the barrow...out of the ground...into the barrow. Bending down...then up...then down...then up...then down again...then back up. The only punctuation in this monotonous process was occasionally scrambling out and emptying the barrow. And even that became tiring. On an average day, I would go through about 6 cans of coke, 6 sausage rolls and 3 bags of crisps. All in all, I dug 33,600 litres of soil. For those who like a bath, that's 420 of those. (And after all that digging, a bath was a definite requirement!)
No comments:
Post a Comment