June 27

John and I were both working at the observatory on the 27th. We erected a 10’ by 10’ canopy over the steel beams that were ready to sand to give me some shade. That was my job. I brought a steel brush thinking I could brush off the rust in a few hours. I was off by only a few orders of magnitude in terms of the amount of work involved. John brought a rotary drill and a circular steel brush for the sanding. John started to cut and dig up all the brush around the observatory. This was the first really hot day with temps near 105, single digit humidity, and a light dry breeze. We broke every 45 minutes or so for drinks and a short rest.

About noon time the previous owner showed with his wife, a helper, and a U-Haul. They spent about 45 minutes emptying the warm room and loading the truck. He then had to take it to the local dump, more than ten miles away, and unload it. What a waste of time and money on his part. Like I said in a previous post, we had offered to get rid of all of that stuff if he reduced his price by $500. Instead he rented a U-Haul where he lives in Lake Arrowhead and drove it 160 miles to and from the observatory at about $250 plus gas – maybe another $30. Then his helper was $100 for the day. So he and his wife saved about $10 an hour each on a beautiful Saturday getting sweaty and dirty and driving around in a rented truck. What people will do when they think they’re saving money!

After they left we went back to sanding and digging up brush. We were pretty well spent by 3 PM, mostly from the heat, and we called it a day. I didn’t even get halfway done with the 2X6s and John only got most of the brush cut back. He was a bit wary by one manzanita where he found a foot and a half wide burrow under some branches he cleared. He felt better when he accidentally stepped into it down to his knee and nothing happened. We guessed the burrow was abandoned.