644 Loader working in the backyard

[RoamingGnome]

Bell Canada has been bugging us to join the 21st century and upgrade our phone / internet connection to fibre optic cable... the new cable had to run 80' from the back of our yard to the house. I decided to dig a trench and bury the cable, just because we get so many branches falling off our old walnut trees.

On Tuesday I bought me a brand new 4" trenching shovel - it works really good

about 80' from pole to house - plus a few zigzags
There was about 12 hours of digging on Tuesday evening and all day Wednesday... Bell tech was there bright and early Thursday morning. Install of the new cable, connections on the pole, running it through the wall of our house and setting up the new modem took the tech about 3 hours.

After that it was time to play with tractors and backfill the trench...

Two hours later it was all filled in and levelled out...

Just a dry dusty brown stripe across the yard
A big thanks to @Eugen for selling me the loader, and helping out when I had some engine issues...
( that's next on the list of tractor things to do... )

[Eugen]

I must say Gerry, you have my respect for doing that trench by hand. Before having a loader I did a lot of shovel work and my back got so bad that I now avoid that type of thing as much as possible. Yet I know, if it needs to get done, it gets done. Great tip on the trenching shovel, I had no idea such thing even existed.

Great to see the loader in action!!!

[RoamingGnome]

The 4" trenching shovel was actually on sale at Peavey Mart, the angle on the blade is perfect for skimming the bottom of the trench. 30 years ago my Dad dug the previous trench for the phone lines with a regular garden spade, took him twice as long and he moved way more dirt to get an 18" deep trench.
I actually found his old trench at one point,

had to dig carefully as the new trench crossed over to make sure I didn't slice the old lines before we got our new set up.