Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday 6-7-8 June 2011 How the sun finally shone and the footer became a reality

For the first two days of the week the rain persists and we are working in deep clay. I tell the MB that this is just sent to try us, like a biblical event. When we get through we will have an even more profound sense of satisfaction.
A layer of shale partially keeps us out of the sinking red clay, but getting in and out of the homehole requires agility and faith. It's like very hard rugby training.
I’ll put up a few photos to show the transformation of the hole into what it is now, a building site just waiting for the concrete truck to arrive and pour in 14 cubic yards of concrete. We have to build the forms for the footer, then install them. We then have to install the reinforcement. Wednesday is a huge workday and now we are ready for concrete.
A helicopter circles in the bright afternoon sky. The sun brings out the black fly, all famished. I don’t even notice because I’m so pleased with the results of all this preparatory work. I can now stand in the housespace and look at the water.