HI, I would like to hear a little more about that xricon audible liquid level I
went on google but they didn't have any thing about it that I could see..
THANKS ROB from Minnesota
----- Original Message -----
From: Boyce, Ray
To: [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2007 4:24 PM
Subject: RE: [BlindHandyMan] The holes have been holed.
Hi Dan
Gee it's fun doing home renovations, I am glad Teresa has got you away
from the Jack Daniels.
If you had gone down any deeper you might have come out over here .
Anyhow I am pleased to see the deck finally starting.
Keep us posted on it's progress.
Ray
________________________________
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Dan Rossi
Sent: Wednesday, 20 June 2007 03:49
To: [email protected]
Subject: [BlindHandyMan] The holes have been holed.
Well, on Saturday, Teresa's brother came down to help me bore some
rather
large holes in my backyard for the deck footers.
Teresa and I had already put up all the string lines, leveled them,
squared them, made sure they were parallel and perpendicular to the
house,
sprinkled magic powder and danced around them in an effort to ward off
the
almost right gremlins.
We got up early on Saturday and were out the door to Home Depot by 7:00
AM. I picked up a Xircon audible liquid level. This is a set of tubes
that you connect to either end of a garden hose. Then you fill the hose
with water. When the water in both tubes is at the same level you hear a
steady tone. Great for eventually marking the height of the posts
relative to the ledger board.
We went to the rental desk and got us a 12 inch diameter, three foot
long
auger, the eighteen inch long extention bar, and the engine to drive the
whole thing. Then we found we couldn't get it into the car. So we
brought it back in and called Teresa's brother who was on his way down
to
our house. He picked up the gear and was able to get it into his truck.
After lugging the damn thing up the infamous four flights of stairs and
back to the house, we took a quick break. We then assembled the rig and
started it up for a test. We could not keep the thing running. It's idle
was set so low, it would immediately stall when you took your hand off
the
throttle. We messed with the choke. We messed with the idle. We checked
the fuel filter. We checked the oil. We sent Teresa out to purchase a
new spark plug. No joy. So Tommy and I got to work despite the damn
thing.
Tom is a big guy, I am not. I gave him the throttle side, but that left
me with pull starting the damn thing, probably 50 or 60 times through
the
entire process. It was very very hard work. However, it was a lot easier
than I expected. I fully expected to be thrown around, have my shoulders
wrenched, and possibly get a knee or ankle smashed. Nothing like that
happened.
We would drill down six or eight or ten inches, then pull the auger up
and
clear the dirt from the bit. Of course, the engine would stall and I
would have to restart it after we lowered it back in the hole.
Now, the bit weighed about 40+ pounds. The engine about 50+ pounds. and
an auger full of dirt weighed, well, it weighed a hell of a lot. At
first
it wasn't too bad. As we got deeper, it became harder to haul the damn
thing up from ground level to high enough to clear the hole and off to
one
side so we could clear the dirt.
After drilling all the holes down to three feet, Tommy was not very
happy
with the conditions of the bottoms of the holes. We were still in
relatively loose, soft dirt and gravel. He convinced me to put the
eighteen inch extension bar on and drill until we hit clay or something
hard. Well, I now have five four and a half foot deep holes in the yard.
We got down to clay or sand stone in two out of the five holes. I am
hoping we are close to that in the other three holes.
Now, imagine hauling a hundred and fifty pounds of auger, engine, and
dirt
from ground level up to your shoulders in a nice smooth motion. And
doing
it over and over until all the holes were cleared of loose dirt. I was
one sore puppy on Sunday. I have some nice raw spots on the flesh
between
my thumb and forefinger from blisters that broke.
As an aside, a guy I see in the gym locker room regularly, put in a deck
last year. We have been sharing stories about decks for a while. I
hadn't seen him for a couple of weeks. I saw him Monday morning. We
chatted for a bit, then he saw my hands and said "What the hell did you
do
to your .. HEY! You drilled your post holes didn't you?" He had the
same exact wounds when he did his.
We covered the holes with plastic and lumber to keep the plastic from
blowing off. I called the inspector today and he will inspect my holes
this afternoon. I can start pouring any time after today.
I am weeping slightly as I write the following. Since I planned on 36
inch deep holes, and I now have 54 inch deep holes, I need fifty percent
more concrete. Which means hauling a lot more 80 pound bags up all the
friggin stairs.
Also, I expect that some of our bags of concrete that over-wintered will
be useless now. I hope that some of them will be fine and I will
possibly
dump an extra shovel full of portland cement into each batch if they
happen to be a bit lumpy.
I am not looking forward to this.
Later.
--
Blue skies.
Dan Rossi
Carnegie Mellon University.
E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:dr25%40andrew.cmu.edu>
Tel: (412) 268-9081
**********************************************************************
This message and its attachments may contain legally
privileged or confidential information. If you are not the
intended recipient, you must not disclose or use the
information contained in it. If you have received this e-mail
in error, please notify the sender immediately by return
e-mail and delete the e-mail.
Any content of this message and its attachments which
does not relate to the official business of Eraring Energy
must be taken not to have been sent or endorsed by
Eraring Energy. No warranty is made that the e-mail or
attachment(s) are free from computer virus or other defect.
**********************************************************************
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
