All the planning, & I'm closing in!

[UnderTheStars]

Can't resist a post.  Took half a day off today and finished digging (by hand!) for my slab - 11 x 9, dug 16" deep.  Dug first half on Sunday, second half today - just under 5 cubic yards of dirt.  My son & I are feeling it tonight.  Pretty excited this part is done.

This weekend I'll tamp the gravel base, build form, & dig trench for electric.  Then wait for my concrete guy to pour, the electrician is ready to go.  Dealer received my HS Vanguard this week - on standby in his warehouse.  Wahooooooo!!!!!!

[Spatech_tuo]

Sounds like the countdown is on. Congrats.

[OnMedic]

WOW, if your soil is anything like the clay we have here, you otta be hurtin'! I hope it isn;t a very long trench for the electrical, 20" deep sucks, ever for a couple of feet. I had a mini back-ho do ours as it was 40'. Good luck, and it sounds like you will indeed deserve that 1st soak!

[UnderTheStars]

I got lucky on the clay.  Our lot is pretty much heavy loam.  However, we did find two trees that had been cut off just below sod level, probably 8" trunks.  That slowed us down a little.  After we dug out the stump masses and old roots out about 3' we had to dig down to solid undisturbed soil - made quite a hole!  (and will take a lot of gravel to fill)

BTW, I looked at renting a mini backhoe but the backyard is tight and I would have been back & forth on a lot of brick laid in sand.  Figured the 3000 lb. bobcat mini-ho would not be too kind to the patio!  Hey, I'm just absolutely ecstatic the digging is done.

[Lori]

Fellow Vanguard lover here!!!

May you always have hot, bubbly water!!!

Congrats!  You will love it!!!

[UnderTheStars]

Thanks Lori!  We are pretty excited.  We've planned to do this for 5 yrs;  & this year the tub is our anniversary present to ourselves.

Since we made the purchase I've looked at the pictures in the brochure every night but with so much site planning/prep to be done those pictures it still seemed "way off in the future."  (Should we do a slab, a deck, put it here, over there. . .)

But now that the dig is over & the hired helpers lined-up it suddenly seems very close & real. . .We're getting a hottub!  I guess everyone experiences the excitement build like this when it all starts to come together.  Thanks all for putting up with mine!

[wmccall]

With your name, I have to ask, any interest in Astronomy? (one of my hobbies)

[UnderTheStars]

As a matter of fact, yes!  Although it's been many years.  My problem is too many hobbies, not enough free time to support them all (LOL.)

About a year ago I got seriously into digital photography (had a film darkroom 20 yrs back) and I've been thinking about doing some "star trails" pics again.  Between work and the "new purchase" I don't think a telescope is in my immed. future.  Are you one of the guys with a decked out Celestron?

[Lori]

My hubby just bought him a new celestron last year.  Don't know if it is decked out.  I just look through the view finder to see what he has found.  LOL!

The excitement does build, Under the Stars!!!  This will seem like the biggest wait of your life, but oh so well worth it!!!

It will happen!  Then you will have many years to come soaking under the stars!!!

wmccall, didn't you set up a telescope to watch from the tub?  Or was that my hubby planning that, I can't remember!!!

[wmccall]

 Are you one of the guys with a decked out Celestron?

Nope  Meade 12.5" dobsonian

[wmccall]

wmccall, didn't you set up a telescope to watch from the tub?  Or was that my hubby planning that, I can't remember!!!

That might have been him, I'll take a pair of binoculars out before dawn in the winter (and a small towell to wipe off the lens)   and use those.   There are several nice looking clusters you can see with binos and you can see both Saturn, Jupiter, and their moons pretty easy.  I'll also go out in the tub if there is an iridium flare or an ISS passover.

[Starlight]

wmccall, didn't you set up a telescope to watch from the tub?  Or was that my hubby planning that, I can't remember!!!

Don't set the scope up too close to the tub--spa water spots are difficult to remove.  And don't ask how I know that.

Starlight

[UnderTheStars]

To all the kind words about the building excitement - Thank You!  And to Wmccall - WOW!  A 12" reflector is some hobby!  (looks like a custom trailer to boot.)  

Do you ever use a camera body with that and if so, any photos posted anywhere?   That's a great looking rig.  The biggest thing I ever had access to was a 4" and it did not have the best optics (lots of aberration.)

The night sky has fascinated me since childhood.  Looking up gives such an incredible sense of distance, time, and the vast enormity of it all.  To the forum police - sorry, I know we're off topic!
UTS  

[wmccall]

 (looks like a custom trailer to boot.)  

The trailer belonged to one of the guys with the "really big" dob 24"+    If you want to know the interior width of a Dodge Caravan, take a look at the length of this tube and add another 1/2"  I've not tried an photography with it.  http://members.tripod.com/~Mccallw/comet.html will show a few free hand astro photos I have played around with.