Then added about a foot of ledge-rock to drain water and ease heaving pressure. Finally a 2 inch layer of crusher dust for a packed surface.
I had planned on a pole barn type structure and borrowed an auger from a friend's farm. I could only manage 4 foot holes with this equipment. Frost line around here is 5-6 feet. Also, the holes immediately began to fill with water. Now, this summer had been especially wet, and some busy beavers had stopped up the nearby drainage ditch from the road, but winter was due any day now and I couldn't decide how to proceed. I had a tractor with a trencher come to clear out the ditch, but the ground was so saturated I couldn't tell if there would be improvement. I resigned to wait for the spring thaw and see if drainage improved.
Well, I am glad I waited rather than rushed into things. I consulted lots of neighbors and analyzed many structures around the area. I spent the winter filling up my graph pads with countless revisions of boat shed plans. As the snow cleared I settled on abandoning the use of sunken posts and would build directly on the pad I had prepped. It should be able to ride out the grounds movement while avoiding the problems of the saturated earth. The holes were filled in and tamped as I set about laying out the build.
I constructed a grid for the posts so as I stood them up I would know just where to put them to be in line and properly spaced.
I buried a large stone under each post-placement and leveled them to one another.
From there all I had to do was drag over and stand up these treated 6x6x12' posts.... alone.
Plumb them and brace them... alone.
I honestly don't know how I have ever built anything before without using quick-grip style clamps.
It was hard going but by the eighth one I had gotten better at it.
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