On Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:40:02 -0500, salty wrote:
Are you certain they are solid concrete and not maybe brick columns
that have been finished over?

Hmm, no I'm not actually! Maybe next time I'm using an SDS down there
I'll drill a little core sample just to make sure. Looking at
the tops in the little dip where the wooden beams sit, there's no evidence
of it being anything other than concrete (so if they clad them in
concrete they did it before all the lumber went in). I still can't
imagine a good reason for the bottom taper, either, even if they do have a
brick core.

(there's a chance I can ask sometime; the grandson of the people who built
the house has a cabin in the fields behind our place, and I think his
father - who would have been a young boy when the house was put up - is
still around. It's possible someone might have told him the reason and he
might have remembered it. The cabin's all shut up for the winter right now
though, so that'll have to wait until next spring before I can ask!)

cheers

Jules