Day 16 Friday, August 17, 2001

We are scheduled to leave for home around 2:30 so we can get cleaned up and go to my graduation ceremony. I want to finish digging one footing trench before we leave. Its raining. Laurie, trooper that she is, agrees to jack hammer and pick axe with me. The footing trenches go 10 inches below where the basement slab will be. Its solid shale. The machine wont break it up very well, so we do it by hand with the pneumatic hammer and pick ax. We chip, measure and toss rock into the loader. Its noisy and slow. God bless Laurie. Never a complaint. She will probably smother me with a pillow tonight. We finish the trench (90%) and head home.