18 August 2012
Installed the
in-ground posts that form the transition from the walkway to the third landing.
Skipped to the end of this section because the critical measurements for the
longitudinals are from the second landing south to the first two sets of
in-ground posts and from the third landing north to the last two sets of
in-ground posts. There will be four sets of in-ground posts in this section,
with the distance between the second and third sets a non-standard distance
(should be 4′ 6″) because of where the third landing has to be to set up for
the next section. Sounds more
complicated than it is… which is not to say that I won’t find a way to screw it
up somehow, like forgetting that my tape was reading 1″ short when I measured
for one of the posts this morning, so had to dig it back up and start anew
after I had positioned it perfectly, just in the wrong spot. And, yes, a 1″ positioning error would have
significantly messed up the alignment of the third landing. And, yes, when I put a post in the ground,
it’s meant to stay there forever… digging it back up was a real female dog.
Mid-morning Marty came over to request assistance with an urgent plumbing
problem. Fortunately Perry has virtually every tool ever invented and the
vicegrip with chain device (used for rotating threaded pipe) that he lent us
proved to be exactly what was needed to solve the problem. Was just thinking to myself that the
in-ground posts in this section were going in nice and easy (mostly grey and
yellow sand with only a few small rocks and very manageable roots) when I went
down six inches (okay, maybe it was only four and a half…) and hit the big one,
which, of course, was imbedded at an inclined angle. After probing all around, determined that
that critter weren’t coming out of the ground without some serious heavy
equipment. So fired up the Skilsaw with diamond tipped blade and promptly
stalled the generator (forgot to flip the switch that keeps it revved up so
that it can handle a sudden large current draw… like trying to cut rock). Once the rock had a nice level platform
carved into it, tried to drill a ½″ diameter anchor hole with the hammer drill,
thinking that this rock looked a bit softer than the granite I failed to drill
a month ago. After beating myself and the drill to death for 10 minutes I had
achieved a ½″ cavity (okay, maybe it was only four and a half millimeters) and
gave that idea up as a lost cause.
