Hal,
For various dialing purposes, I've used recycled plastic jars or
bottles as markers.
At first I would fill the milk-white type with soil or sand,
screw the lids on, and
paint numerals on what would normally be the containers'
bottoms. I later took to using
clear (peanut butter) jars, so I inverted them, and painted
the markings on the lids. Buried
to a bit above 'grassroots-level', but below mower-blade-minimum, they
have been pretty
stable and reliable. Over some four or or five years,
I've not seen trouble with frost-
heaving, but of course recent winters have been mild. Still, there
has been a fair amount
of 'freeze-thaw-freeze-thaw .....' action. Perhaps it helps
that the earth fill inside is
similar to its surroundings, including thermally, and that
the smooth, cylindrically-walled jars
do not convert depth-dependent differences in horizontal compressive
forces into vertical
vectors?
Bill Maddux
On Wed, 5 Jun 2002 11:17:27 EDT [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
6-05-02
Mac,
I enjoyed your analemmatic dial experience. About two years ago, I laid out an analemmatic dial on a reasonably level - and sunny - part of my front lawn. I used the X-Y coordinate approach after locating true North using the shadow at noon method verified by a magnetic compass corrected for the magnetic deviation. I was assisted by a roofer's square and a long draftsman's straight edge in addition to a 150' tape measure.
The hour and date markers were relatively short plastic garden stakes. Above each hour mark, I placed a small polished stone. I also placed a stone over the current date marker (actually entrance into the current sign of the Zodiac). The only problem is that I must remove and replace the stones when I cut the lawn.
Hal Brandmaier
