Got around to posting some pictures from the weekend. The FIL and I moved over 3 yrds of dirt on Sunday, and the rock separator worked like a charm. Five wheel barrels of lava rock, large river rock & organics pulled from the ground, all in about 4 hours.
Here's a shot of where the garden will be, the shed is 12x14, and the garden will be to the left w/ same footprint.
We have potatoes planted in the big flower pots. The old lava rock is mixed in with over 30yrs of windblown dust and extends 20 ft. or so from the fence out to where the potatoe pots are, for the full 97ft of back fence.
Here's the area we dug on Sunday, starting from the old planter boxes and worked to the shed, out six feet from the fence for an area of 14'x6' by 1ft deep. We started with a 6'x6' pit next to the planter boxes, and sifted the dirt directly into the planter boxes. Once the pit was cleared, we moved down there and started making piles, clearing an area and moving the box... then repeat.
We took a lot of breaks as it was high 80's out, and the palm sander would start to heatup, but so far it's working great. Seemed to work the best to throw about 4 shovel loads on, and then use the flat blade to scrape across the grating as some of the organic materials would hang up the rock. The shovel would gather some of it together and then the rocks would just peel off. Also, if anyone is looking at duplicating this design, I'd say go closer to a 20 deg. angle for the screen. The 15 deg. in this Rev. works, but we found if we dug the front leg's down a little and increased the angle it worked better.
So my back is wrecked now. While clearing out the first pit, we were shoveling rock/dirt into 5 gal. pails and hauling it over the planter boxes for sifting. All that initial hauling, lifting and dumping has ruined any progress my back has made in the last month, feels like I'm starting over. So yesterday I checked craigslist for some help and found a 16yr old kid willing to shovel the rest (over 7 yrds) for $250. He and his dad came by in the evening to check out the job. Worth it to me if he can do a good job. Supposed to be there to start as I type this, I'll report on the progress as it's made. Hoping he has it cleared for me to start chicken proof fencing on Friday. The wife wants to put the seedling sprouts in the ground next week.
Ahhh, my back.
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