Observatory Construction Blog - page 2

Jeez, it's cold! Well, I made the decision to dig the hole by hand. My buddy Austin started laying the joists out for the deck and the observatory. I began to dig the hole with a shovel, go down as far as I could and switch to a post hole digger. The ground was a perfect consistency for digging, but at two feet I ran into the really hardpan clay. Maybe if I take it slow and easy, I can dig it out over the coming week. Good progress today, I was feeling quite high at day's end.

Sunday morning, even colder than yesterday, the wind slices right to the bone. The hole is very aggravating, this manual digging is not going to be much fun. Around 11 we had to make a run to Home Depot for some Redi-mix, decided to pour 12" deep footings after all. We pulled into the parking lot and right in front of our eyes is a 24" augur hanging from a trailer. Turns out that Home Depot is renting this baby, soon renamed "The Solution". Rented that thing quicker than you can say MasterCard. Got home and dug that hole in FIVE minutes. All the footings as well. Beautiful! Back on top again!

So another day draws to a close. We feel much better about how things are going than we did this morning. Doesn't look like we accomplished much, but it was an eventful day. Ready to do some concrete now.