November 24

Its been a frustrating several weeks in progressing with the observatory, mostly due to family events with both our families, plus frustration with the weather - yup, there is weather in California. So there are no photos in this post, just an update - or a downdate, take your pick

Based on the current wiring diagram of the observatory, I've been working on a a rewiring plan as far a possible but haven't really progressed into it yet.

After the last post, John and I decided that the 14 inch depth to our footings were too shallow, despite it being in almost completely solid rock. This past Saturday I spent almost 8 hours with a jack hammer and shovel completing the excavation of both holes down to 18 inches and also widening them to 3 X 3 1/2 feet. After all, we will be sliding a 4,000 pound on wheels over the north end of the building by almost six feet - better safe than sorry. John came out midday and assembled a new 3 1/2 bag cement mixer that a friend of his loaned us for the duration. I left in the evening but John stayed thru Tuesday. I returned on Monday and left with John noon Tuesday.

Weather-wise, Monday was the worst day we have spent there during construction, even worse than the 110+ heat we suffered through in the summer. This time it was the wind - a cold Santa Ana. It blew from Sunday until we left early today, maintaining a constant 20 mph and gusting to 30 mph. What is most difficult to deal with is the fine desert dust that gets entrained in the wind. We spent 8 hours Monday assembling the rebar that John previously cut. We had planned to install and properly align the rebar and post assembly for both footings plus mix and pour the cement (~60 bags of 60 pounds each). We must have had a few too many when we set that goal. Durign all this work the wind was so loud that we could barely hear each other shouting more than twenty feet apart.

By dark on Monday we had welded together one rebar frame and accurately placed it. We needed it to be level with a point on the observatory wall 5 feet away and square with its corner with an accuracy of 1/16 inch. The second rebar frame we assembled but only approximately placed. All day we kept vacuuming the blown dust out of each footing hole. We had dust in our eyes running in muddy rivulets down our cheeks, up our noses, and even inside our clothes pockets. We stopped at sunset with the wind picking up even more. I slept in the club bunkhouse where I took a hot shower and had to turn the heat up to 85 to keep from shivering. John tried to sleep in his pop-up camper but the canvas walls blew out during the night and he ended up in the bunkhouse too.

This morning the wind and dust were blowing and pounding so hard on the bunkhouse that it woke us up and it sounded like a hailstorm. After a few hours it let up and we checked the observatory site. The footings were almost half filled in with dust. We decided to lick our wounds and called it a day. We'll be back next week. The plan now is to complete the welding and accurate positioning of the second rebar frame and then come back another day and mix and pour the cement. Fortunately we both had parked our cars on the lee side of the osbervatory or the bunkhouse so we didn't have the paint stripped off our cars. I have seen that happen to people several times.

The other item we wanted to complete before Thanksgiving was the outside painting. However, we may be stuck until spring. The infrared reflecting additive we will add to the paint needs to set for at least 24 hours at temperatures above 55 degrees. Other users have told us that they have had problems with the paint flaking off over the coruse of a year when the temperature fell below 55 during the setting period. Our night temps in the desert in the winter are always flirting with 55 at best and frequently its cold enough to get snow accumulations.

Our original goal was to have the observatory roof built and completed by Thanksgiving. That's now revised to Memorial Day.