Looks Like a National Park

Clean up went very well.

It started with cutting the hillside and collecting rocks, which seem to be as plentiful as trees around here.

I realize this goes against the thermal mass rule, but the berm wouldn't have held up over time. My wife Pat has a knack for planting beautiful rock walls and I'm sure she will have it green by next year.

We will also plant shrubs along the sides of the building, put a wood deck in front and a native grass everywhere else, which should mitigate any thermal trouble.

Here is the final wall with class 5 gravel spread over the road and parking spots.

This wider view shows the fire ring and wood shed. This space will be used when we are not using the observatory. We needed a new fire spot, our old one is in the middle of our building site for the new house.

View driving up the driveway.

The observatory's back, a side parking spot and a rock pad for the warm room. This view is from the northeast corner of the observatory. Next week we'll pour the pier and do the final building leveling. The pier will need some time to cure before we mount the scope.

I'm also running to the cities this weekend to pick up grass seed, shrubs, dirt and plants.