28° when I arose… but it was a dry cold, so quite pleasant. Josh LaFlam was here all day helping to dig out shed footer trenches. Tammy arrived at noon with her Kubota loader / backhoe. In 15 minutes she finished digging out the second half of the shallow footer trenches that Josh and I had been working on by hand all morning. Tammy then tackled the two deep holes needed for the Big Foot footers that will prevent the north end of the shed from being affected by frost heaving. She uncovered and removed a half-dozen Leicester nuggets of the half-ton size. Needless to say, if Josh and I had attempted to dig those holes by hand, we’d still be at it come Christmas... 2011! Having Tammy do that work was one of the smartest moves I’ve EVER made! Further evidence (are you listening, beloved wife?) of why I NEED my own loader / backhoe. On her truck Tammy had the mechanical tamper that I was going to rent tomorrow to pack down the footer trenches, which she let me borrow to do that job. The first black flies of the season made their appearance, but were not bothersome. Built and began the placement ritual for the south end footer form. “Placement ritual?”, you ask. Remember the ledge that Bob LaPorte uncovered when the shed cellar hole was dug? Well, the footer form had to fit around a piece of that ledge. Obviously, we had to recite the proper imprecations as part of the placing of that form, hence the ritual. After skipping lunch, a steak, slightly seared over the fire pit, went down real easy, helped by some Standing Stone Winery vin rosé. Afterwards, somehow forgot to call younger son to wish him a happy 27th birthday. Me one bad Dad!!!! L!!!!
