Solar Noon

08/22/2006

A busy day with the first order being to give the excavator a check for $10,000. I had never written a check that large and it felt good. Of course, that good feeling was followed by me wondering why I felt good giving away a large sum of money which was followed by me analyzing why I wondered and couldn’t just be in the moment which was followed by me trying to quiet my mind which never really works and which only resulted in a muted buzzing in my head accompanied by a vague feeling of guilty achievement.

In preparing for a delivery of concrete, it occurred to me that not many things are concluded concretely. The vagueness was starting to wear on me, until I had a chance to experience the most true and positive event since this whole building process began: solar noon.

Solar noon is the exact midpoint between sunrise and sunset. An object on the ground which runs straight up and down will cast a shadow which will run exactly north-south. Pretty cool, eh?

It is one of very few sure-fired ways to make sure your house is aligned the direction you wish, in our case the long axis facing due south. With a plumb-bob, a level, some string and a few stakes, at 12:51 this afternoon I created a true north-south line, off of which we aligned the foundation, thus getting our house site perfectly situated to take advantage of the warming sun. Not bad for an English major.

3/19/12

This still amazes me to this day that it worked as easily as it did. I should have taken pictures of my scientific prowess because that was as good as it ever will get.