So this is what I've been digging lately, under the west porch.. it was kind of a ski slope from the back wall to the water heater. Cutting it down flat, square up the edges, make it a better storage area for wet dirt from other areas in the basement. Took about 12" cut at the face of the wall & it's about 8" at front of cut.
Hauling the wet dirt over here to the sw corner, will eventually employ bucket screener here & haul the wet lumps back to where I'm digging now, to leave to dry out over summer, then crush it next winter & pile and haul it out summer of '14.
This cut is 18" deep by 72"x32" (0.917 cu yd), that's most of the dirt already in this corner.
There's maybe a dozen bellydump loads to screen & crush here presently, the last of the bone dry dirt from the wall mined away last winter.
Haul quite a bit of this crush over to the wet pile sw corner, give the 850 a dry, elevated platform to perch from while screening. And put the remainder in the wall for backfill.
Started the slow soak again this morning under the west porch, take about a week for thorough deep coverage, then let the surface dry for about 3 or 4 days & dig some more...starting at 8" at the last cut, tapering down to an inch depth just behind the water heater.
Here's a movie, can't see the 850 hardly b/c of poor lighting, but I think you can still make out how tight of area it is for it to work within.
http://youtu.be/WwrxdVTLfmY