25 April 2013

Spent most of the morning hand excavating the side-slope where landing #5 will be situated.  The worst digging conditions encountered thus far: nothing but thick roots and rocks.  Put the stringers on the in-ground posts planted two days ago, then realized that the last one (which starts the landing platform) was installed ½″ too high.  It gets worse!  Went to put on the final 16 foot long longitudinals and discovered that I’d planted the in-ground posts for the start of the landing 4½″ too far down the path.  After exhausting my panoply of curses, decided to cut longitudinals to fit the gap rather than dig out and replant the posts.  Got lots of exercise going up and down the walkway retrieving tools from the shed that I’d forgotten to take down to the work site the first time.  Got some deck boards for this final stretch put on when it was time to quit for an adult beverage… or two.