When the bridge workers suggested that we try and burn the stone again, I had my doubts. We had done this twice before and had made little progress. “However, this time might be different,” they persuaded me. I changed one thing from how we had burned the rock before. Instead of using diesel, I used some old truck oil. Apparently oil is the secret. Look at these pictures and celebrate with me the removal of some large chunks of stone. We need to remove this stone so that we can anchor the cables low in the ground.
Pouring old truck oil on the rock and spreading it around with tree branches
The rock is now "painted" in oil so we load the wood we collected in the forest.
This was an impressively hot fire. Even though I was so far away, I found it difficult to take this picture.
A crack! We used our small metal chisels to open the crack and then some large wooden "chisels" to further open the crack. It was a great relief to see this large chunk of stone come out. Phil Greene, our engineer, is coming in one week and I hope'd to have the rock completely out by the time of his arrival. We shall see.
