[TowerTalk] Looking for some foundation advice

[jimlux]

On 5/27/20 4:15 PM, Grant Saviers wrote:
> Same problem here for a 589, but in clay so there was a lot of soupy 
> sloughing, a deeper hole, and water at 5ft.  Maybe your soil is more 
> friendly.  I put a small 120 volt utility pump ($50) in the hole with a 
> garden hose and pumped continuously then we poured the concrete.  Put 
> the pump in a bucket with holes and surrounded by gravel as a filter. 
> (There is more to the story when we (K7LXC and me) encountered two 
> abandoned septic tanks).
> 

Abandoned "infrastructure" is the bane of excavators. Especially if the 
infrastructure is sufficiently old- see the recent news story about a 
Roman mosaic floor in a vineyard, or any of dozens of stories where 
bones are discovered.

Most exciting around my location recently was when they were digging in 
someone's yard and found what appeared to be leg wires from a blasting 
cap (and potentially, an unexploded charge from who knows when). They're 
quite distinctive, and if you've ever seen them, you know exactly what 
they are. Turns out it was a lazy blaster years ago that didn't gather 
up the wires after a shot.