The pole is in the ground 8',,,The tower stood there all summer,,,but this past fall it got pretty windy and the tower would move back and forth a little, well it kept doing this and it reamed the hole bigger,,,the weight was not a problem,,but the moving was !!! I attached a pic ( hope I did it right ) . I pulled the tower upright with a chain hoist ,,dug the 5'x5' hole and poured 2 yds of concrete around it. The concrete is just there so my hole does not get oversized Sawdust,,,