We decided to dig toward the road, simply because the excavator was parked back by the house.

Paul started by stripping the topsoil where the transformer will go.

The transformer pit was overdug to about 7ft.x 7ft. and down to a depth of 3ft.

Next it was on to the trench itself. For the entire length, Paul would always strip off the topsoil and put it in its own pile so we could make sure it went back on top when we backfilled.

While Paul did the digging, Jeff laid the 10ft. sections of conduit pipe in the trench.

A view from inside the transformer pit.

We have an unusual cross-section of layers on our property. Beneath the topsoil we've hit brown sand, white sand, red clay and grey silty clay.

The trench is 3ft. deep and 3ft. wide (one bucket width).

A view from up on the excavator.

Paul hard at work in the hot cab.

Stripping more topsoil before going deeper.

Progress so far, with the conduit sections in the trench.

Approaching the low spot along our digging line - the old pond outlet.

Beginning the home stretch. Just about 100 feet left.

The trench seems endless. For not having any guides, Paul did a pretty good job of keeping it straight.

Scraping the bottom to level it off.

The topsoil in this part of the field was about 8 inches thick.

Paul approaches the road, just off to the right. It's difficult to see here, but there's a stake right behind him marking the pole location.

Scooping up another load from the trench.

Taking the last few bucketloads before stopping about 10 feet short of the pole location.

After taking the excavator back to the beginning of the trench, we used it to suspend the heavy spool of cable TV wire. We then tied some rope to the cable and the skid-steer and by driving backwards along the trench, pulled 600+ feet of cable off the spool and laid it in the trench.

We rigged up the spool of telephone wire in a similar way but because it was much lighter, we pulled it by hand. We also glued and fitted all of the conduit sections while feeding a 1/4" pull rope through them. This is to help the electric company in pulling their wire through. Then it was on to backfilling.

John came out later and helped with the backfilling. Paul used the excavator to fill the trench up to 18" shy of the ground level. Jeff laid the burial caution tape down, then John used the skid-steer to cover the rest.

Jeff also pulled out a lot of rocks from the fill material. We hope to use local rocks for the fireplace and chimney.