Jeff, smiling,
but it's just day 1!
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| The weather is very cold - was 16 degrees at dawn - but promises to be clear. Lumber truck
arrived without getting lost. While Jeff & Paul helped the driver unload, I drove into town to
pick up the power auger. We were planning on using the backhoe we've borrowed, but it won't start.
While I was gone, Jeff & Paul pulled some straw bales off the stack & laid them out
around the perimeter. They pounded nails into them and are using them as "batter boards",
moving them into position, tying string to the nails & marking the positions for the piers
with piles of lime.
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The soil about a foot down turned out to be dense, moist clay, and the auger would get
gummed up and had to be cleaned every few inches. Also, below that was rock.
So we would dig with the auger, then scoop out the soil by hand. Then use a "spud"
bar - a heavy duty pointed bar for use in confined spaces. The bar breaks up the rock
pretty well. Then scoop out by hand, etc. till deep enough.
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| Paul even tried using his Hilti drill that can drill through cement to bust up the
rock and clay.
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| By the time the sun set behind the mesa - about 4:30 - we were all bushed, and
called it quits, with 8 more holes to finish. Yikes!
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