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Over the years I have hired a few mini/midi diggers for various home based projects and become quite proficient at using them. I am pretty practical and have pretty much self-taught myself. I am about to embark on my first self build and I am going to need to clear a lot of land and dig a lot of stumps as well as start doing quite a lot of excavating. I could hire another midi-digger but I am thinking a JCB 3cx or similar backhoe loader maybe more useful and just as capable for the majority of excavation that I am doing. I have never driven or operated anything like it. I am looking for a couple of days of introduction and basic operation training, just to get me upto speed on the use and operation of one. I not looking for any formal qualification, but just to spend some time with a knowledgeable person and get some time on a machine before I decide to either rent or buy an older 2nd hand one. I am based in Oxford, but don't mind traveling. Can anyone point me to somewhere that can provide to sort of training I am after? Many thanks for any tips or pointers... (and any pointers to any decent 2nd hand buys )

It may be of interest to some - Gravenhill, the self-build estate in Bicester, are offering a series of online seminars in early June. The first 3 webinars are available to book onto now, don't miss out on your chance to get the answers to the questions you need. Tuesday 2 June, 2pm - The Graven Hill Story Tuesday 16 June, 2pm - The Graven Hill Experience Tuesday 30 June, 2pm - Self-Build Made Simple Others are planned. I would expect a mixture of useful information and a sprinkling of marketing. Ferdinand

Has anyone done one, is it worth it?

I'm sometimes accused of overthinking stuff. And I'm a little weary of it. Here's why. Expert status in many areas is thought to develop after about 50,000 hours of practice. And one of the common characteristics of expert status is the reduced need to think about the hard-learned craft or subject. It (irrespective of subject matter) becomes hard wired. Take my digger. Just bought it a few weeks ago and while using it in the first couple of hours I was like a cat on a hot tin roof. My shoulders ached, my jaw was locked, my concentration fierce. And then I remembered my flying lessons. 'Think it, and it'll happen, lad' growled the instructor. And when the fear had dropped a bit, I allowed myself to relax and reduce the control inputs. Suddenly I wasn't dancing all over the sky like the proverbial in a pot. On the digger, I reduced the control input and slowly the swing was not so large, not so jerky. Then Ed (Construction Channel) said it would take about 4 hours to get a basic understanding. He was right. That was a fortnight or so ago. Now, I couldn't tell you what I do to hook a self-hitch bucket, Now I get annoyed at myself for 'clangy' bucket movements. Slowly I have stopped thinking about it. I just feel it. The next step is over-confidence (pilots call it the Death Zone -about 200 hours into their training). Now, I don't think I'm going to die while using a digger, but I'm going to be extra vigilant in a month or two. After many hours of practice, experts (it's a well-documented phenomenon) simply don't remember that they had to learn stuff. And sometimes are just a little puzzled by someone who asks apparently naive questions. And then -with kindness and reassurance at the root of their response- reply that the questioner is over-thinking it. No, all the questioner is doing is sharing their worry, their lack of expertise, their lack of practice.