Then the machines moved in!

Nick, a good friend who was doing the ground work for me said  'It could not be done the way I'd planned, I would never get the layout spot on', but I said it had to be done this way!!

The ground level was raised 24" to get me off the water table. This was so I could dry the ponds out, without them filling with water. This meant soil had to be placed where the first pond was to be, it then had to be tracked in solid before the pond could be dug. When the ground level for the first pond site had been raised 24" the pond was then dug, the soil from this pond was then placed where the second pond would be, it was then leveled and tracked in before the next pond could be dug. This continued until all the ponds were complete.

 

All stopped for Christmas, I started back the beginning of January , it rained and it rained and it rained all month. I could not get on the ground at all. The start of February was good, to work I went, re-measuring the site and pegging out for what?
    

Once the site was re-pegged, strings were laid, criss-crossing each other, at every intersection the ground was sprayed with marker paint. When all was marked out the strings were removed and  I started to bore 224 x 16" diameter holes 5' deep. This took the next week and a half with a digger equipped with an auger bit. For the next job, I had to have some hands, 8 of us. The strings were reset, concrete lorries were booked, three loads per day for the next two days. Two huge long reach diggers were equipped with concrete hoppers.  Pour the concrete, drop in the foundation tubes and level up on the intersection point with a spirit level x224!!

The next two months were spent playing with a huge Meccano set, 50 tons of it.  I had a hand for 3 hours a day and I did the rest on my own. It snowed on 26th February, but that was better than rain!

Piece by piece, 50 tons of steel was bolted together.