Well, I hope the transformer doesn't buzz; the observatory is going to be close by and I'd really like it to be quiet!
About 300' of the 436' electrical trench from the road to the well head was dug on Monday, February 28. It turned out to be very tough digging; in many parts of the desert southwest, the soil is almost like concrete. They don't call it "desert hardpan" for nothing.
After the backhoe broke on Tuesday, the job was finished (by another backhoe) on Wednesday. This is really hard stuff; you can understand why mud adobe is a reasonable choice for a building material out here.
The guy with the backhoe figures to wear out
a set of teeth on this trench
alone; he'll need lots more teeth for the observatory basement and
foundation. He's also going to switch to more pointed teeth
(here they are on the left) to dig through
the concrete-like soil much more easily.
After the trench was dug, the bottom was lined with 6" of sand. On top of that was laid over 400' of 3" conduit, which was buried by 6" more sand. There's a 90-degree elbow at each end, to bring the conduit out of the ground; the conduit is buried 3' below grade. One elbow comes out of the ground next to the roadside power pole, and the other elbow comes up at the transformer box. (This spot is too far away from the road to have the transformer on the roadside pole, so primary power line runs in the conduit to a ground-level transformer next to the well.)
The power company then came in and blew a string through the conduit from one end to the other. They used that to pull a rope through, and used that to pull the electrical cable.
From the transformer end, this is what the trench looks like after the conduit has been laid and the trench filled in. The meter pedestal and the ground rod are in place, waiting for the power company to come back and install the meter.
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Terry R. Friedrichsen
terry@venus.sunquest.com