Today was digging day. I wanted to get the footing holes dug and some of the trench around the bamboo done. My bamboo has escaped from it's original home and I need to put a stop to it. So, my plan was to dig an 18" (recommended) trench around it and pour concrete in the trench.
I went to the day labor place and asked for Rene, the guy that really works hard. Someone named Rene came out but it wasn't the same Rene. I asked the guy that runs the place about the other Rene and he said Rene was no longer welcome there. I remember him telling me he was bipolar so I'm guessing he had an episode. Anyways, I took the new Rene and asked for someone that knew concrete work. An older guy named Thomas came out.
I told both of them to just to work steady and take breaks whenever. Both of them worked just fine.
Thomas dug the footer holes by himself. The two deep ones are 2' deep, and 24" x 48". The big hole is 1' deep and 18" x 12'. The whole time this is going on I'm just getting madder and madder at the city for making me pour a foundation that could hold up the Empire State Building. This is going to take a bunch of concrete to fill up. ggrrrr.....
Meanwhile, Rene and I tackled the bamboo. That was REALLY HARD. First of all, that landscaping fabric was sort of buried where we needed to dig. That crap is almost impenetrable with a shovel so we had to dig and pull it up to get it out of the way. Although a shovel can't get through it, my bamboo has no problem. It was popping up everywhere through the mesh. On top of the fabric problem, we had to dig up bamboo roots everywhere. The whole thing was really tedious and slow. I gave up on the 18" idea pretty early on and we just tried to dig about 3 or 4 inches below the lowest bamboo root. I probably won't stop it all with the concrete but I'll get the bulk of it.
We did finish what I set out to do. Actually a little more. I didn't expect to get all the trenching done we did.
When I took the guys home, Thomas gave me a business card. It turns out his main occupation is landscaper and tree trimmer. I've got two large dead trees I may get him to take down. I may even just get him to do my little rock walls around the bamboo too. This sort of work is getting harder and harder for me to do. I got through lunch and pretty much was done.
Anyways, here's some pics.
Bamboo trench
Trench around my banana plants
Big rock pile mess.
1' deep footing for steps (geez I hate the city)
2' deep footings (know any mobsters than need to disappear?)