20 June 2018

Woke up at 3 am just knowing that the banks on the south and west side of the barn-build site were going to be much too close to the barn walls to allow the concrete forms to be placed and (Chree’s favorite job!) those concrete walls to be tarred (but not feathered) later on.  Couldn’t excavate the west bank (full of roots for some trees we’re trying not to kill) so Chree and I moved the foundation marking stakes 6″ east.  I was just starting to dig the bejesus out of the south bank with the Kubota when Liam Murphy from LTM Environmental arrived to install our new radon abatement fan.  That job quickly and easily accomplished thanks to the Steve Ingram Memorial Attic Walkway, went back to playing in the dirt.  Moving the building meant, of course, that a lot of the stone so carefully placed and compacted yesterday now was in the wrong location.  So, idiot sticks in hand, scavenged stone from where there was too much and moved it to where there wasn’t enough.  Also had a middle-of-the-night epiphany about how to bore the hole under the stone wall using my 3,000 psi pressure washer.  Took an hour of alternating water blasting with pounding some more with my steel bar and hand scooping muck and stones out of the hole, but eventually a piece of 1″ PVC conduit slipped under the stone wall pretty as you please.  Connected the conduit from the barn back towards the main electrical panel, but stopped a few feet short to figure out how I was going to connect the 1″ male box connecter (whose outside diameter actually is 1¼″) to the panel, whose smallest knockout is for 1½″ conduit.  Figured I’d just drill (very carefully) a 1¼″ hole in the bottom of the panel.  Only problem is that I don’t have a 1¼″ drill bit, never mind one for drilling metal.  When in danger or in doubt run in circles, scream and shout call Perry!  All Perry has is a 1¼″ spade bit (good for drilling holes in wood but quickly ruined drilling in metal), so he suggested I ask the Green Mountain Electric folks for their ideas.  Now why didn’t I think of that?!?!