Lou Hemphill Pavilion - Construction - Day One

Photos and commentary by Andy Steere.

This is day one of construction. It is October 6th, 2001 and the weather is cool, but sunny and pleasant. Four brave (foolish?) souls begin construction of what will become the Lou Hemphill Pavilion. The pavilion will be a 24 foot x 36 foot structure with 6x6" posts 12' apart, trusses every 4 feet, simple but covered gable ends, coated-steel roof, and a ceiling that will be ~9.5 feet above the concrete pad. Funds to build this structure came from the sale of a very large amount of R/C equipment and supplies that were donated to the club by Lou Hemphill before he passed away.

STATIC IMAGES

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Breaking Ground. The "Foreman" of our group is Robert Perkins, whose vast knowledge and experience in the art of construction were essential to the proper construction of this facility, is also extremely skilled at the operation of his Bobcat. Robert did most of the hard work and the other three of us provided moral support.
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Re-checking our lines. I drove a couple nails into the top of the 2x4's for the string. Pretty much the extent of my hammer-swinging the first day... Robert took my hammer away after watching me try to nail on a vertical post.
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First task is to remove a foot of dirt all the way around the perimeter, then take the center down a few inches so there is room for the rock on top. It will be a 4" concrete pad.
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Once the dirt is dug out, time for the rock. Robert makes quick work of the job with his Bobcat.
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You can see how much help we were providing at this point.
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If I had not had a flat tire on the way to get the auger, we would have had more than one hole dug. Robert again did more work than anyone... of course with a 12" wide hole, its easy to have too many helpers.
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We did manage to get one of the 12' 6x6" posts in the ground... but digging the hole down 3' took too long. We have a fancy auger coming tomorrow.

End of day one.

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Last modified on 07/15/2002

since July 15, 2002.