Our (actually, Jeff’s) weekend project is to trench from the pole barn to the well house for the new water line and pump circuit.
A few bumps along the way. First, having to spend more time than we planned finding the current electrical line, an old sewer line, and current phone line. Yesterday, he dug much like an archaeologist would–carefully brushing and digging away bits of dirt at a time to uncover the 3-foot deep electrical wires. The phone line and sewer line (at shallower levels) suffered some damage, but thankfully we still have service. 
Once he found and dug around all those, he could trench more quickly with the backhoe.
Second bump: a yellow jacket’s nest. It isn’t responding to poison, so today we made a trap involving a water jug, a piece of meat and some soapy water.
By the time of this writing, Sunday afternoon, he’s got the trench dug maybe 1/3 of the way.
The kids are having the time of their lives running along a 4-foot deep trench. Jeff is digging deeper than any previous wires were set by prior owners, in order to get wires and pipes below mole level and well out of the way of future digging. We have run into shallow phone lines more than three times already and have lost phone service twice. What else could happen when wires are supposed to be 18-inches deep and instead they’re about 2-inches deep?
My goodness that is a big “trench”! Clyde used to work for the county road department and he was the road construction supervisor so when they would start work on a new road, he would call the utilies companies and they would come out and mark their lines that they would get damamged. Still, like you said, a lot of times they would not be buried as deep as they should have been and so sometimes they would dig them up.
Yes, it big! And it is even bigger now that he finished the 300 foot distance to the well house! We have a 24-inch bucket on our backhoe and didn’t want to buy or rent another bucket, so we’re using a biggie. We had the utility and phone company come out and locate the lines, but their methods aren’t foolproof so there is still a margin of error in actually locating the lines. The phone lines are notoriously close to the surface which is really frustrating.
Love, Wardeh
I had no idea that lines could be so close to the surface! That trench is pretty amazing. I am amazed that he could get so much done over the weekend!