Having a four day weekend was nice as I had time to get a few things done. I dug a trench to lay pipe for the 100 amp sub-panel to feed my brewery.......

First it is advisable to call 811 before you dig to have all of your utilities marked.

The white line is where I suppose to dig. The red line is the electrical feed from the power company and the orange is the phone line.

I used a Mantis electric tiller which I have to say is awesome. I have owned two of these in my life time and both did a great job. This one will clean up nicely and will be with me for many years to come to help in landscaping and gardening. Again I cannot speak highly enough about this tiller as it has lots of strength and is a whole lot quieter than a two-cycle gas one.......

I used this tiller to break ground in helping break up the top layers of the grass and then on to the hard-pack. Once loosened up I shoveled it out and used a pick-ax to take care of the really hard stuff such as rocks and the like.......

As you can see to the upper left of the last photo that one should expect a little dirt left over as to compaction displacement of the dirt you remove as well as to the added volume of the pipe.

Now for getting the wire pulled in and hooked up.

I just received confirmation that the kettles are being shipped tomorrow. I can hardly wait. Still lots of work yet to be done.......

More later.......

Now on to the more important stuff.

The control panel has came along right nicely. I was able to drill, cut, as well as paint the panel plates as well as the panel box and then proceeded to mount all of the devices and instruments on the exterior of the panel.......

I heard from John from Stout Tanks and Kettles last week and was told that the kettles should be ready to ship within the next couple of weeks. Hooray!!!!!!! 

Can't wait.

More later.......

BUT! The city inspection didn't go off so well. I went to the city inspections office to pay my $30 for a permit and asked them then what all I needed to do to be within compliance. Instead of showing me a booklet, or a link online, to read all their criteria and ordinances specific to one building in their backyard, they rather only said to keep the building 5' off the property line and the building can be no taller than 12'. I told them that the building is 11 1/2' from the ground to the tip top but it would need be set on top of blocks which their reply was not to worry about that. So I commenced building plans with only that knowledge. When all was said and done I had a note to call the city inspections office and was asked if I was planning to keep my other shed which my reply was yes. They proceeded to tell me that there was a 10' clearance issue and that I had 30 days to correct or be fined $100 a day until it was resolved. You all can only imagine how frustrated I was even after going there in person and asking for all I needed to do to be in compliance. I explained to them that if I had only had that knowledge prior to building the new building that I would have built it 10' away from the other but since they failed to offer that tid-bit of info I had no idea of such an ordinance.  They wouldn't hear of it and wouldn't budge or cut any slack even though they knew I had complied with all I was first told. Needless to say I was just able to find just enough room for the older shed to be placed on the other side of the new one so instead of paying an additional $350 for the filing fee for a variance that would have to go before the city council for approval, which by no means guarantees said approval, I decided to move the smaller shed myself. I used the old tried and true Hebrew approach. I went and purchased ten 2" PVC conduits and jacked that puppy up and down onto the conduits and rolled it into place.......

I then built a new ramp as the old one was shot.......

We now have to change the idea a bit as to how we want the backyard to look in the end but all in all this turned out o.k. all considering. it cost me an additional $150 just for the materials to move the shed but far better than it would have costed to hire it out. Gotta love living in the city.

More later.......

It has been a month since my last post and much has been accomplished but much more yet to do but here is what has occurred since my last update.

The building was finally finished and with a little hiccup between the builder and the Building Inspector which was resolved after a week or so I finally got my building inspections finaled with the county. One thing I did have to build myself was steps to enter the building. Don't laugh as I am not a carpenter and the steps are by far not perfect. I still haven't decided on just leaving steps or building a deck for a seating area for a couple of small tables and chairs. In any case here is the steps I built.......

More later.......