Excavator machine operator Cindy Margerison checks out depth levels in a basement she's digging in Martensville

The construction scene once might have appeared to be an exclusive man's world, but Cindy Margerison is one young woman who is helping change that image.

She's also helping change the landscape. Out on the building site, the 26-year-old is at one with her powerful excavator. Pulling and pushing the levers controlling the big machine, she's shaping another brand new basement. It's like she was born into the job. In a way she was.

Raised on a mixed farm in Paynton, near Lloydminster, Margerison was part of a family farm that managed up to 200 head of cattle and farmed 1,400 acres of land. She was handling farm equipment before she was a teen, she says.

After attending three years of post-secondary education in agriculture, Margerison took her first step in the construction world.

"I started working in oil field construction in the Lloydminster area in 2004 operating a Bobcat. It was the first machine I had the opportunity to operate in the construction field," Margerison says.

After a couple of years of oilpatch work, she decided to move to Saskatoon to join the city's residential construction industry working with small skid-steer excavators, such as the well-known Bobcat brand. Six months into working for her current company, she got her big break, moving over to the cab of a John Deere 200CLC.

The 20-tonne track excavator casts a long shadow, hauling up to 1.8 cubic metres of dirt in its heaping bucket. Margerison is undaunted by its size.

An employee of All-Pro Excavating, she has already dug 144 new basements this year, along with numerous other landscaping and excavation jobs in and around the city.

She says the work at All-Pro is challenging and very rewarding and she's grateful to the company for giving her the opportunity to prove herself. Margerison is also working toward a Class 1A licence, which will allow her to operate heavy trucks. It's hard work, but it's satisfying and a pretty lucrative way to make a living, she says.

An experienced operator can make more than $30 an hour, but the effort required is no walk in the park, especially in winter, she says. Winter operation calls for the use of a ripper shank in order to penetrate the frost. This can be physically and mentally strenuous on the operator and very hard on equipment, Margerison says.

"But overall I am happy with my experience in the construction industry and although there were some adjustments needed along the way, none have been overwhelming."

She says that most customers are impressed to see a young women operating an excavator, but there are still a few people "locked in the past."

For now, she needs to build up years of experience, which could eventually lead to her getting a higher position in the company.

"I'm also looking forward to perhaps digging my own basement someday."