Excavation and the '3-Foot Rule'

non-existent so we like to use the dirt that we're using through excavation and throw it up um sorry throw it up on the outsides of the the rock and liner and then really fan that berm out um we have what we call a three foot rule whereas if you have your rocks and liner and you are putting dirt up on the backside to hold that liner up you want that dirt to come out at least three feet horizontally from the top of the rock which would be the top of my hand and then the dirt's gonna come out three feet and it either slowly tapers or there's another rack here to stock the dirt and then you can tear us down but we want that three feet um it's kind of a general rule of thumb in order to prevent that volcanic look is there any advantage instead of digging this out by hand to using an excavator or a big piece of equipment on this size advantage uh no it would be a disadvantage so bringing in a machine on a project this size would be i think a little bit overkill um you know you'll have damage to the yard you'll have cleanup and stuff like that taking three four buckets out of here there would be a lot of rebuilding of these shelves that are cut and carved to a specific depth and height so i think stanley you're at a perfect rate four to five people on a project this size less mess more efficient and a machine just simply isn't needed even if you got it sitting at the shop man keep it at the shop you'll be more efficient with your four or five man crew here okay so then when do you bring in a piece of equipment your four or five person crew should be able to by the time you hit your fourth or fifth pond you should be able to get an 11 by 16 pond dug line rocked and filling by lunchtime that's what we call a one day pond a machine should come in when you're at about 400 square foot ponds so 11 by 16 is 176 square feet of 400 square foot ponds like a 20 by 20. this is the this is the point where