Narrow and shallow ditch digging advice please

[etpm]

Where are you getting the cable?
I will likely be doing a similar project as I need to pull a line to my barn.

Amazon. Lots of choices. Avoid stuff called CCA, it is copper covered aluminum.
Eric

 

[rScotty]

Much as I like to use my tractor, an 80 foot ditch for a telephone line is at most a few hours work with a shovel. Probably much less.

 

[2manyrocks]

Tractor would create more work because of the rocks that would be unearthed in the process that would have to be picked up.

Maybe a manual lawn edger tool that you step on to press into the ground would be enough for this job.

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[etpm]

Much as I like to use my tractor, an 80 foot ditch for a telephone line is at most a few hours work with a shovel. Probably much less.

My soil is too rocky for a shovel so a pick is needed. And my wrists are too arthritic for me to this job if I don't have to. Both wrists are bone on bone joints so I try to avoid stuff like pick work because it make them hurt too much.
Eric

 

[JsJs]

Would this be used to call someone and ask them to hurray up and read a text message you had sent ?

 

[2manyrocks]

Doesn't want to miss any telemarketer calls.

 

[rScotty]

My soil is too rocky for a shovel so a pick is needed. And my wrists are too arthritic for me to this job if I don't have to. Both wrists are bone on bone joints so I try to avoid stuff like pick work because it make them hurt too much.
Eric

I wonder how many of us pay a local handyman help for little jobs like this? I do quite often. In fact, I keep a list of this type of job that need doing around the property and consult it when the handyman comes around looking for work.

 

[etpm]

Thought I'd update the shallow ditch. First of all it turns out that I'm not a very good estimator of length. The 80 foot ditch is actually 105 feet long. This must be why my wife is always wrong when it comes to how long something is. 'AHEM' .
Anyway, what I ended up doing was to use a ripper hanging down as far as possible from my box blade to rough in the ditch. Then I used a new pick mattock to finish the ditch to depth. The reason for the new tool is because it is considerably lighter than my old pick mattock which makes it easier on my wrists and hands. Nevertheless I am still waking up in the middle of the night from considerable pain.
So, after burying the phone cable I packed the dirt in as much as possible. To help with that I borrowed one of those vibratory compactors from a friend. I moistened the dirt to help with the compaction and consolidation of the dirt. As is always the case for me I never have enough dirt to fill in the ditch I just dug so I brought in some extra dirt from a pile I have just for that purpose. That vibratory compactor is a great machine. It really does a great job.
The direct burial wire ended up about 8 inches deep. Yeah, I know, it should probably be deeper to comply with code or good sense or whatever. But it is a low voltage, low current, low data cable. And I'm a low brow person. And it is my property after all, and the only threat to the cable is the lawn mower. And if my lawn mower starts to mow 8 inches below ground level then I have other problems that really need addressing.
After I compacted the earth it looks great. And next year when the grass has re-grown over the injured area it will be invisible.
The best part of this ditch digging is how it all ended up, phone wise. I called Whidbey Telecom technical support to find out if their system still supported pulse dialing. The answer was no, it did not. I was going to buy a pulse to tone adapter but forgot. After the wire was in the ground and everything was done but the connecting of wires I did just that. I got a dial tone. Yay! So then I tried dialing the old rotary phone and Whidbey Telecom does still accept pulse dialing, despite what the tech support guy said. Cool!
Later,
Eric

 

[rScotty]

Several people have asked why we have an old style dial phone on the kitchen table.

It's because we live rurally and get a lot of power outages. When power stops, all the data/phone lines that rely on power go down too. It doesn't help to have power at the house if the relay station up on the mountain top is not getting power.

But the old dial-type phone lines still work. Unplug the new phone and plug in the old. Now you can talk to neighbors and emergency messages still work.