Awake: 6:15am Temp 59 sleep 6+27 sunny overnight @ Nicktown, PA.
Kathy left the Koffee Klub early to continue making noodles @ the church hall. This will be the last noodle making for the yr. I'm sure the ladies will be most cheerful about that.
During our Koffee meeting, cousin Dave informed Al & me that he had a straight steel bar about (6) ft in length & would be proud to let us use it. With that delightful statement, I was actually excited to return to tunneling.
After breakfast, I drove to the church parking area, got my equipment &
tools, found the heavy (6) ft bar that Dave is loaning us, & along with
Al, we started swinging the sledge hammer @ the steel bar making slow
progress as before.
Al had rigged up a fulcrum system by using another shorter borrowed steel bar that helped retract the (6) foot bar when we wanted to. My excitement quickly died out about having a longer bar; yes, we were making progress but it was so......s-l-o-w!
Finally, I realized that Dave's bar was a hexagon & if one of my socket
wrenches would fit on the end, I could use my torque wrench to rotate the bar & then hammer the bar in, rounding out the tunnel & making the hole easier to slide the bar in & out.
It worked like a charm & before we knew it, we were running out of bar length with no signs of seeing metal on the opposite end; our (6) ft bar was a bit short of the sidewalk width by a mere (1-2) inches.
All of a sudden, in came Barry; we explained what was happening & quickly he knelt down close to the opposite opening & had me hit the bar several more times. He told us the bar is real close & sounds like it's hitting rock. After a few anxious moments of maybe hammering that bar too far in & not being able to retract it, Barry got a grip on the rock, moved it & brought cheers to the onlookers. Wow! The tunnel is open for business. Then that masked man rode off without our chance to thank him profusely. Ah, such excitement.
Now I could continue running more wire with conduit & Al could carry on returning sod & dirt to the trenches.
Meanwhile, Kathy has been very patient as she planned to have me drive her to the Foote Castle earlier today, but later she said not to hurry & just keep working on the project. She will spend (4 or 5) days living with the Footes & being ready to help Kevin when Melissa goes
into labor & to the hospital to deliver their 4th baby boy. We did arrive @ 7:00pm & the Foote family was happy to see her.
I didn't stay long as I hadn't eaten yet & wanted to get a few groceries before returning to Nicktown.
Dinner: leftover Italian tuna casserole, fried noodles, mixed salad & a fruit salad.
Lights out: 12:08am
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