2 July 2012

Goodro Lumber’s truck showed up at 8 o’clock with $2,000 worth of pressure treated lumber and Simpson Strongtie RTB22 and SD10112 hardware.  While Chree removed 200 stickers stapled to the end of each pressure treated board, I finished cutting the roots of the hemlock (may it rest in peace forevermore) and excavating the first 44 feet of the wood walkway path.  Fingers crossed that none of the other 400 feet of pathway will need excavating.  While getting my morning workout with pickax and shovel, got to thinking (ALWAYS a dangerous thing!) about how I had calculated the walkway slope and how we were actually measuring said slope.  Without getting too technical, suffice it to say that the slope calculation was based on 450 feet of run and 56 feet of elevation change (the opposite and adjacent sides of a right triangle for you visual learners), whereas we were actually measuring the hypotenuse of that triangle.  Would that, I wondered, make a significant difference in where the walkway ended up in terms of elevation when we got down to the lake?  Over lunch, Chree and I put our few remaining functioning neurons to work on that question.  After much noodling, we determined that, yes, figuring the slope one way and measuring it a different way would make a difference of over 6 feet in elevation at the bottom of the path.  Merde, alors!  So, after lunch, we carefully measured the pathway length (434 feet minus a 14 foot gap where the path will run level crossing the “driveway” into the back of the house) and accurately surveyed the elevation change from the house site down to the walkway terminus at the waterfront (still 56 feet).  Doing the math, that means the walkway slope needs to be 420/ 56 = 1:7.5, not the 1:8 that we were planning to build.  Double merde with fudge on top!  Oh, well, better to catch that faux pas now than when we got to the bottom of the hill.  We started digging the first four (of well over 100) 12″ deep holes into which in-ground posts and footers will go.  The very first hole ended up on top of an enormous granite rock 8″ below the pathway grade level.  Of course!!!!  Tried moving said rock… couldn’t even find three of the edges.  Having anticipated this situation (he’s just such a clever lad!), just not with the very first hole, we got out the diamond-tipped Skilsaw and cold chisels and quickly created a level area 3½″ square in the rock.  Then I took my hammer-drill with a ½″ carbide-tipped masonry bit and attempted to bore a 1″ deep hole in the center of said level area.  The rock won… and we’ll be going shopping for a diamond-tipped ½″ drill bit tomorrow.  After much effort, I did manage to create a ⅜″ depression in the rock, into which went the head of a 60d galvanized nail and some 150,000 psi epoxy glue.  The nail, glued into the rock, will pin the in-ground post in place… so long as the rock never moves.  And speaking of in-ground posts.  Chree took the tarp off our stash of used but good 4x4 posts this afternoon and discovered a HUGE colony of carpenter ants busily building their version of the Taj Mahal.  Their nefarious plans exposed, the ants gathered up their thousands of eggs and went elsewhere.  Kate came over for dinner (burgers-on-the-campfire with other delicious accoutrements, not all of which were in liquid form).  First time she and Chree have had a chance to really chat.  A thoroughly enjoyable evening from all perspectives!