25.01.2021 Digging down to raise a dome.

 *

 Monday 25th 33F, mist cleared to sunshine. The dome is in the shadow of the neighbour's trees. 

I'm going to try digging my first post/block hole. First I must rake all the pea gravel aside to avoid wasting it.  

You couldn't make it up! Three boulders precisely where I needed to place my first block! It must have cost me an hour to remove the largest. Using a long lever and working the rock slowly up a ramp of gravel. After that I backfilled around the first block to use up some of the loose gravel from the excavation.

It doesn't look it but the block is slightly below ground level.

The second excavation was almost effortless until I found another rock in the bottom of the hole. 

Paused for lunch when I ran out of steam. It has been a superbly sunny morning. In the sunshine I was warm while wearing a T-shirt during digging operations. Stepping into the shade was like walking into a fridge.[37F now.]

The blocks and the posts they support, are deliberately tight to the north and south walls of the octagon. With the maximum variation between the octagon and the larger building in the SW and west. Left in the image below.

I can hardly believe it but I managed to excavate four holes and bury four blocks today. I am rather tired and my back hurts but I shall survive.

The last [wide angle] image shows the tools I used. The arcs were superb for guiding the exact block placement. They are shown touching the metalwork on the blocks and aligned with the fixed rear, SE post of the octagon. I have removed the metalwork from block No3 to avoid tripping over it. I shall probably do the same to the rest as I proceed in a clockwise direction.

My [spacing and depth] measuring stick is lost on the middle arc. The self-compacting gravel still needs to be tidied up and levelled. It carries everywhere on my shoes. So it ought to be covered in pea gravel as soon as possible.

*