| June 16-17, 2002 |
| The following three shots are the initial setting up and surveying of the site with string before we began digging the footing holes for the observatory floor. |
 |
 |
 |
| More digging. After a horrible morning of dealing with a gas powered hole digger that kept dropping the auger and would only shut off with the removal of the spark plug, I was back to manually digging holes. There are eight of these footing holes in all. Not exactly a fun way to spend time when you have clay soil from the top down, mixed with sizable rocks that get in the way. |
 |
| The next four shots are of the footing for the pier itself. The hole that was initially dug back in April turned out to be several inches off center of where it needed to be. So we ended up digging out a wider bottom so that the footing could be "slid" into place. On the top of the footing, you can see the block of wood that will make the keyhole in the pier footing for the later pouring of the pier itself. Also, you can see the template where we will stick vertical pieces of rebar from the footing into the pier. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| This is the site as it is now. Overall, it was a miserable weekend with the constant cycle of rain then sun. In this shot, you can see the setup that we put in place so that we could uncover only a small section of the site. |
 |
