Electric Service to the barn.

First we had to move our tool shed because it was in the way of the path of the new electric line. We rolled it up onto round fence posts and Jeff pulled it with the tractor. It took us all morning to get it in place, but now it is much closer to the garden where we need all the tools anyway.

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Next Jeff rented a mini-excavator and dug a two foot trench from the barn to the house. An electric line has to be buried at least two feet down to be up to code. This also took all day.

We had to dig the finishing touches of the trench in the areas near the building with shovels. And the poor electrician spent all afternoon chiseling away at the cement pad to break up enough area to run the wiring into the basement two feet down. We'd feel worse for him, but they make $67/hour and they charged us for 2 additional hours for this...so!
You can see the yellow and black cord they laid in this picture. It was our job to back-fill the trench, and they instructed us not to put rocks back in the trench on top of the wire.

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Next we used shovels to back-fill the trench with about a foot of soil. Then we put a 1 inch water line in the trench so that we will have 3 season water to the barn.

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We seeded grass and it grew. We added our compost to the trench and some winter squash also grew in the lawn, but we moved them. Everything looks back to normal now and we have adequate electricity to the barn and walk in cooler plus a new waterline.

Jeff has been working to build a covering for our walk in cooler to keep it out of the elements. It will also provide storage space out of the rain on the adjacent side. We never seem to have enough of this! The roof will be salvaged barn tin. He's been trying for weeks to get the roof on, but the vegetables have been keeping us too busy. We'll be sure to post when he gets it finished.

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