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The original stone channel for the stream leaving the 'discovered' buildings on its way to the pond
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09.12.04 The Dig
There were times when I thought this job was endless!
I have excavated an area five times the area in the picture with tens of tons of soil going to terrace the back paddock. Over a year of 'spare time' digging has brought me to the point where I have found the original course of the water, and it's still flowing, although no longer under the adjoining building.
I have uncovered a long lost old building block, in fact the old outside laundry and toilets for the farmhouse, complete with the sluice for directing the water. A few decades ago these buildings were partially knocked down and the ground levelled over and around them.
This has been a difficult job, for the last four feet of depth I was working against the flow of water excavating mud and rocks. It's December now and the water is starting to get very cold, I can only work with my hands in it for a few moments at a time.
It would only have taken a JCB an afternoon to level all this area of buildings, and yet it has taken a huge amount of my time to excavate it. I consider myself lucky still to have a few feet of original wall height of these buildings to work with. At least the destruction here is nearly over, I shall re-pipe the stream and return this to being a useful area again. A construction project for next year, no doubt!
The level of the garden when I started was around head-height in this picture, and I'm six foot.
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