Saturday, September 3, 2011

Drill, Baby, Drill

Here are Brendan, Rog and Bethany as they finished an afternoon's hard work digging holes for the high tunnel supports. All day long it was gray with intermittent rainstorms, but as we finished this evening, the setting sun broke through the clouds and lit up the laborers. This is my favorite photo of the day, so I'm posting it first even though it was taken at the end.
This morning, while Brendan and Bethany were at the  Farmers Market, Rog picked up a Ground Hog earth auger from the rental place to drill eight 4-foot deep, 6-inch diameter holes for the high tunnel supports along the west wall of the greenhouse where we had to fill with soil to create a level surface. Sonatubes will be inserted and concrete poured in to set the poles in securely.
I  helped Rog measure placement of the hole drilling spots, holding one end of the tape as I photographed.
The cows supervised.
 By the time we finally finished digging the first hole it was obvious that we needed to rent the machine for the entire day, not just for 2 hours as  we originally planned.
Things progressed a bit faster when Bethany and Brendan got home from market and joined in the project.   Bethany would pre-dig the loose soil, Rog would auger through the compacted earth, and Brendan would use the post hole digger to remove the soil at the bottom of the hole.
The second-to-the-last hole!
As we  finished, the sun shone, promising that the rest of the weekend will be lovely for erecting the high tunnel. We are expecting a bunch of  volunteers on Monday, Labor Day, for the high-tunnel raising. We still have  lots of  prep work to do tomorrow to ensure it goes smoothly on Monday.
Now for some well-earned supper!

2 comments:

gz said...

Real progress and teamwork!

I love warm Autumn days

forever growing said...

It is unbelievable how much you guys have accomplished in such a short amount of time. It is great, I am really happy for you.