Some people love spending money on clothes. I love spending money on earthworks.

Some people love spending money on clothes. Some love spending it on cars. I love spending money on earthworks.

Richard Logan is a semi-regular visitor to my Waikato block. It’s one of the prices you pay when many of your animals are elderly. Every so often, Richard arrives, usually within hours of death. He gracefully pirouettes his six-tonne digger off the back of the truck, conducts a brief, tidy burial ceremony, pays his respects, and leaves as quietly as a big, chugging diesel truck will let him.

Last time he brought this ‘therapy’ puppy, Belle. She kept me company with love and snuggles while I said goodbye to my beloved horse.

There’s good advice on how to pick a contractor in our story on page 30, and I’ve learned a few lessons over the years too.

1. It’s rarely cost-effective to dig a hole that’s big enough to bury a goat, or anything bigger. I have the most beautiful, free-draining topsoil of anyone I know – Richard dug down a good 2m+ with my last horse grave and only just hit clay – but it takes a long time and usually a back injury to dig a goodsized hole. NB: so long as it’s not near a waterway, and won’t cause offence to people nearby, you can leave an animal above ground to decompose. However, it’s very smelly, attracts rodents and other pests, and isn’t an option for me.

2. You can’t have enough drains. There is a small bank behind my house, but the water draining off it during a small rain storm has been enough to flood the garden. Enter Richard. No flooding since.

Another lesson from that day was to carefully measure just how much ‘work’ there is. I guesstimated it was a 20m-long drain, a morning’s work said Richard. If I’d used Google Maps, I’d have known it was 70m and a good day’s work. Fortunately, Richard is very forgiving.

3. You need a good driveway. My first one was a truckload of ‘rotten rock’ sitting on a flat base. Water just sat on it. Eventually, it was pock-marked with potholes so big they had names.

Enter Richard. I got drains, a crowned driving surface, and layers of neatly compacted gravel.

I haven’t had a pothole since.

A good digger man is a gem.

Treasure them.