The cut-offs come in handy later for the cleats and trim work. The second picture is the same base depicted above after a few minutes with a belt sander. Most of the knot holes had rotted, but the wood was still in great shape and structurally sound beneath the paint and the superficial weathering. I trashed out a set of planer blades removing most of the paint and some of the raised grain from weathering. The first picture is a load of recycled Redwood with old red paint on it that used to be my bosses front deck. This allowed me to backfill the original foundation and leave the blocks above grade so I wouldn't have wood to ground contact. So, I built a form the shape of each side of the octagon and made eight trapezoids which I later fixed in place with mortar. I wanted my base to outlast pressure treated wood and be heavier. I see that most people just build theirs on pressure treated 4x4's. I was not satisfied with the size or weight, because I live in a high-wind area.
In hindsight, I should have built the form deeper. The high spots that were sticking out of the water were easily leveled with the back side of a rake. I had previously flooded the hole to soften the clay to do a final leveling. I pounded the stakes in partially, then placed the level across in multiple positions and drove the high spots down with a mallet. The string in the first picture is the north/south line. Before placing stakes to secure the form, I determined true north/south so one wall would face perpendicular to the north/south line.
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