Going underground...

Anticipation is running high.  If the nerves are going to get you at any point in a project such as ours it's now.  As I write there is a 2-3 foot deep trench running down the length of our property.  The trench will be home to the strand of wire that will soon conduct the flow of electrons to our lights and refrigerator; bringing us the luxury of modern appliances that I have taken for granted (until now). 

With the help of a friend we dug the trench in the course of a long June summer evening.  Minnesota code mandates that the conduit-clad wire must be no less than 24 inches deep.  Anything less requires a layer of concrete over it for protection.  This means more material which means more money so we dug as deep as we could.  The digging, however, was better than I had anticipated.  We hit bedrock at most of the predictable spots, but for the most part we dug through 6-9 inches of black silty clay loam, iron red clay loam and red porphyritic rhyolite.  

I have assembled the materials from which we will wire the whole mess together and some day very soon flip a switch.  Then we will be able to read under something other than a candle or oil lamp!  In the shot above you can see the spool of conduit and transformer in the background.  In the foreground is the socket meter (in the box) and the 4-wire aluminum direct burial service entry cable under the tarp.

A view from the transformer looking at "the castle".  Notice the bobcat parked behind the truck.  This piece of equipment did the real work.  Also note the trailer.  The trailer houses a blower that we used to blow cellulose insulation into the attic.  This worked very well.  One person kept the blower full of material as the other handled the hose and deposited a uniform blanket atop the ceiling. 

The spool of conduit and transformer.

Meanwhile inside the humble abode:

With the walls and ceilings all painted we finally unwrapped the appliances and started to get the kitchen situated.

It's starting to come together. Since the attic is insulated we have begun to move storage items out to the property and are beginning to switch gears into "move mode".  Now let's just hope the underground work goes as planned...