Observatory Build – Digging The Hole

This is day three and day four of the observatory build. My goal this weekend was to dig the cubic metre hole for the mount base. I had a 2 yard skip delivered on Friday which cost £60. I also borrowed my dad’s wheelbarrow to complete the task.

I started at about 9am on Saturday morning, and the first couple of spade lengths went really easily, but then I hit the builders rubble level, and this point nothing was going through, not the spade nor the fork. At this point I was ready to give up and visit the tool hire shop for a pneumatic hammer or drill or something! But after a bit of perseverance and actually inserting the fork and then doing a circular motion I actually made it through the rubble and stone level.

This gave me renewed motivation, and luckily by 12noon I had to stop in order to go out to a BBQ. At this point I had dug to a level of about 30cm, so only about 70cm to go!

Sunday I carried on and started at about 10am and dug for most of the day, with a 2 hour lunch break. I ended up putting the parasol and base above me to keep me out of the direct sunlight which help enormously.

I did find the digging now reasonably straightforward, as I went from brown clay onto grey clay which was a bit smelly. Throughout the digging I was also joined by a friendly blackbird looking for food, as well as a bee who enjoyed visiting the new small holes made in the sides of the hole.

So at about 5pm the hole was complete, but only after shaving a few centimeters of the sides, as my digging was not completely straight. The sides don’t measures exactly 1m, at some points it is 95cm wide, but I hope this won’t matter too much.

Next I am going to have to fill my hole with concrete.