Today Rick brought his son with him to help him out. The first order of business was to demolish our little shed. Rick is definitely skilled at demolishing things because he took it apart in just a few steps and stacked it all nicely in the back of his truck. After the shed was demolished, Rick left to take it to the dump. His son stayed behind and spent time cleaning his excavator and began hand-digging near the drain at the corner of the garage.

When Rick returned, he began moving dirt on our bank. He started on the right-hand side (the part of the bank nearest to the house). There were a couple of big rocks laying up there so he got those moved and then started moving more dirt. When he was moving dirt on ground, his bucket on his excavator caught a cable. We don't yet know what it belongs to and thankfully, everything still seems to be working. The cable wasn't buried very deep so it was definitely an "after thought" installation. Of course Rick did tell us that often times the cable company will not bury their cables to the standard 18" depth because it's less expensive for them to repair broken cables than it is to bury all cables at the proper depth. In any case, we aren't yet sure where it begins and ends and nothing in the house or garage/cottage seems to be disconnected. It is possible it's the cable for our security system. Time will tell as the project continues.

Rick and his son plan to be back on Monday morning. Rick will be installing the french drain and will hopefully be able to start placing rock.

This is the part of the bank that has incurred the most erosion.

Rick is also going to bring the rock around this part of the bank and build us a rustic stairway right here so that we can access this side of the cottage from the driveway.

Another view of the erosion.

This is the worst part of the bank.

Say good-bye to the shed :(

No more shed.

Looks different without it.

This gives a better view of where the rustic steps will be located. They'll be on the right side and will allow us to walk up the bank to access this side of the house.

Now he is moving the dirt on the bank.

Here's the cables he came across. They weren't buried very deep as you can see.

This view gives you an idea of how far back he dug and removed dirt. After he places the rock, he'll back-fill with better soils than the clay soil you see here. The better soils will promote healthier vegetation in the landscape.

A closer look at the cables found just below the surface.