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cozy in a trench in the rain Wednesday, September 8 2004
Up until today the trench project proceeded without being tested by rainfall. When the downpour commenced this afternoon I was dismayed to find water seeping through the foundation wall over a wide area having the shape of a triangle with inward-bowing sides. The top of this triangle was high on the wall near the southwest corner of the house. Evidently the water was still entering the foundation above the tunneling I'd made along the western wall of the foundation, and then spreading easily through the Sparfill concrete to other areas. The only explanation for so much water would be a serious foundation crack. Even as it rained, I was in the trench removing earth from the tunnel along the base of the western foundation wall and monitoring seepage of water through the soil. You'd think it would be miserable to be at the bottom of a narrow eight-foot-deep trench in the rain, and in a way it was. But there was something oddly cozy about it, even with the mosquitos. I've had that "being cozy in third world conditions in the rain" experience before, mostly as a kid in structures I built myself. I'll never forget the leanto I built out of locust bark peeled from a pile of locust fenceposts. That was an unusually cozy structure, though I think it was quickly destroyed by goats jumping on it.
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