Day 578: A little garden de-construction

So what do these first 2 pictures have in common  ???

1. Both were built from stone (or concrete)
2. Both were made to last for several thousand years
3. And we have no clue what either were built for

The weather was nice this long weekend so I decided to tackle the obelisk in our garden. And by obelisk, I mean some random pole just sticking out of the ground 

I had previously given this a whack with the sledgehammer and a good boot with my steel toes and absolutely nothing so I knew that this wasn't a challenge for the faint of heart.

Today's tools were my trusty angle grinder with the masonry blade, my club hammer, my chisel, a little shovel and lots of TLC (Thumping - Lifting - Cursing)

So the first step was to clear the concrete away from the base of the pole. I later found that this was actually the easy part. I did this until I found dirt all around.

Then I kept digging, and digging, and digging, ...... and unfortunately, still no dinosaur bones

And finally I felt the pole wiggle. And with a little more digging and lots of TLC (mostly the C part by this point), the column finally gave way ..

And as you can see, there was good reason why it wasn't budging earlier on. I'm sure there are columns on the Parthenon that didn't have foundations this deep. What on earth were they trying to build?!!!

As you can see, the post gave way before the base. 

In the end, I had to rock the base back and forth and pile stones underneath to eventually work the structure out of the hole. Lot's more of the "C" here ...

But finally it was out and I was able to fill the hole with the leftover dirt. 

And now there is one big difference to Stonehenge .. our pole is no longer standing ...