The first step in any excavation is to “Call before you dig”. Even if the job is all hand work it’s still a must. In this picture, the red says “no Avista” meaning no underground power, the yellow says the same, meaning no gas. The white marks were painted by me to show the locators where to mark.

Next, a string line is laid out, the painted to give a nice straight line to ditch.

Since the ditch was in between the sprinkler valves and the timer, the control wire had to run through dig area. Locator was hooked to control wires, so no damage would take place. Ya I go crazy with the pink paint, in this case it was to make wire plainly visible to the electrician.

Sod was slit on previously marked red line, then folded over. Plywood was laid out, the finally ditch is dug.

The end result- like a lot of construction doing the prep is most of the battle. Machinery was not an option here, lawn was very wet and soft, access was down a steep hill, customer had a nice yard with sprinklers, the ground was all sand, super easy dig.