Diggin' It, Part 1

   Like all constructions, you have to start with a firm foundation.  In this part of the world, that begins with digging holes that are four feet deep (below the frost line don't cha know).  Hard experience has shown that this is the best way to build a firm foundation for any project here in the frozen north.  For this project, eight holes were needed for eight sonotubes.  Sonotubes, if you don't already know, are cardboard forms that can be placed in the ground so that concrete can be neatly pored into them.  The cardboard is later removed.

   Before the holes could be dug, their locations had to be marked.  A set of wooden stakes were purchased from HomeDepot along with some high quality and high visibility line (string).  Using information from the CAD model, the stakes were located around the perimeter of the location where the holes were to be dug.  The intersections of the strings located the center of each hole location as can be seen in the photographs.

   Having previous dug post holes, and found it to be no fun, I was looking for an easier way.  Previously, when I lived in Utah, I had seen people use a gasoline powered auger to dig holes and it looked so much easier than digging by hand.  So off I went to Home Depot to rent one.

  Since the concrete piers were to be 8" in diameter, 10" diameter holes needed to be dug which required a 10" auger bit.  This in turn required the larger "two-man" version of the power auger which can be seen in the picture below.

  This tool is an absolute beast.  It takes two strong men to try to work it.  At first, it seems like the answer to my dreams.  The first 2.5 feet of the hole were dug in a matter of seconds, but then it happened.  A large rock jammed the auger and it became completely unusable.  An attempt to dig a second hole met with almost the same fate, but this time only 1 foot of depth was achieved before the auger was stuck.

   The power auger ended up being a waste of $75.  Here in New England, the soil is very rocky and there just doesn't seem to be a good way to dig holes.  In some other location where the soil is sandy or clay, the power auger would probably be great.  For me, the holes would have to be dug the old fashion way, with a post hole digger.  But first, I needed to get the rock out of the hole.

   I worked for hours trying to dig around the rock, removing many fist size rocks in the process.  The rock extended down into the hole to a depth of about 3 feet.  Even working on the rock was a challenge.  I had to lay on my belly and dive into the hole and dig with a small hand trowel.  It was very annoying.  Eventually I realized that even if I could free the rock, there was no way to pick it up out of the hole.

  So I devised a plan to lift the rock out of the hole.  Using a hammer drill (nice one from Bosch, about $300), a 3/8" diameter hole was drilled through a corner of the rock and an I-bolt was fastened to the rock.  A chain was then connected to the I-bolt and then to a 2x4 wooden beam.  Unfortunately, pulling as hard as I could only resulted in destroying the I-bolt.

 It was time for plan B (or C or D, I lost track).  The I-bolt was replaced with a steel cable.  The steel cable was looped through the hole in the rock and then connected to the chain which was again connected to a 2x4.  But no matter how hard I tried, the rock wouldn't budge.  So, I got out the 2 ton car jack.  I used the jack to work as a lever to free the rock, as shown in the photograph.  Then my family of four all lifted on the 2x4s to get the rock out of the hole.  Success!  Well, perhaps not, because I still had another foot of depth to dig on that one hole.

  It was clear that it was going to take a number of weekends to finish digging the holes.  Worried that the rain might fill in the holes or cause them to collapse, I decided to put up an awning, of sorts as shown in the photograph.  My Eagle Scout son make some awesome taught hitches in the lines.

The picture also shows the PV solar panels that are on the roof at the location just above were the new thermal solar panels are going in.