Concrete pouring day for the shed footers. At 4:30 in the morning Delores was illuminated by a car
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driving down Kate Middleton & Dan Wheeless’ driveway – our neighbors to the south. More than a bit curious, donned bathrobe and cell phone and went out to espy the situation. Was, indeed, Kate and Dan arriving from New York for the weekend… and not someone breaking into their house. Steve and I started work at 7 o’clock, suspending the rebar from the braces holding the top of the footer forms in place, oiling the keyway wood and the footer forms, building a portable ramp so that wheelbarrows could dump concrete into the forms, etc. By 12:10 all was complete, so we took a quick lunch break. At 12:15 Josh LaFlam showed up with his cousin, Kyle Cassidy, to say that they had to run back into Salisbury to pick up the third member of the labor crew,
Dylan Cobden, all of whom I had hired to help with the concrete pour. As they left, Dan Wheeless came over for a chat. While that was occurring, the cement truck arrived, A HALF HOUR EARLY! Yikes!!!! The good news is that the driver easily negotiated the pseudo-driveway down to the north end of the shed cellar hole (who knew that cement trucks had four-wheel drive????), which meant that concrete could be placed into about 2/3 of the forms directly from the truck. The bad news is that Steve and I were more than busy as the pour began, with the two of us trying to do the work of what should have been a five person crew. I have no idea how much concrete actually made it into the northeast big foot and Sonotube. Josh, Kyle, and Dylan arrived at 1
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o’clock. The concrete had been mixed at 11:50, which meant that we had until maybe 3 o’clock to get it placed, screed, and toweled smooth before it set. As the last section of form was being filled, the driver announced that the truck was empty. Understand that Steve and I had independently calculated that the forms would need between 5.2 and 5.3 cubic yards of concrete. I had ordered 5 ½ yards, just to be safe. When the truck hit the big E, we still needed another quarter yard to finish filling the forms. Disaster!!!! At that point there was nothing to do but scavenge every single concrete morsel that was not in the form
and not completely dry. By the time that was done, it was well past 3 o’clock, which meant that toweling and edging the forms was becoming increasingly hard as the mix solidified. We got ‘er done, but the result was far from professional quality. Fortunately, most of the footers will be covered by rock walls and dirt, so a lot of the mistakes will be (rightfully!) buried. As we were finishing up at 5 o’clock, Perry stopped by to observe progress, learn a few more swear words, and enjoy a beer by the camp fire.
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driving down Kate Middleton & Dan Wheeless’ driveway – our neighbors to the south. More than a bit curious, donned bathrobe and cell phone and went out to espy the situation. Was, indeed, Kate and Dan arriving from New York for the weekend… and not someone breaking into their house. Steve and I started work at 7 o’clock, suspending the rebar from the braces holding the top of the footer forms in place, oiling the keyway wood and the footer forms, building a portable ramp so that wheelbarrows could dump concrete into the forms, etc. By 12:10 all was complete, so we took a quick lunch break. At 12:15 Josh LaFlam showed up with his cousin, Kyle Cassidy, to say that they had to run back into Salisbury to pick up the third member of the labor crew,
Dylan Cobden, all of whom I had hired to help with the concrete pour. As they left, Dan Wheeless came over for a chat. While that was occurring, the cement truck arrived, A HALF HOUR EARLY! Yikes!!!! The good news is that the driver easily negotiated the pseudo-driveway down to the north end of the shed cellar hole (who knew that cement trucks had four-wheel drive????), which meant that concrete could be placed into about 2/3 of the forms directly from the truck. The bad news is that Steve and I were more than busy as the pour began, with the two of us trying to do the work of what should have been a five person crew. I have no idea how much concrete actually made it into the northeast big foot and Sonotube. Josh, Kyle, and Dylan arrived at 1.jpg)
o’clock. The concrete had been mixed at 11:50, which meant that we had until maybe 3 o’clock to get it placed, screed, and toweled smooth before it set. As the last section of form was being filled, the driver announced that the truck was empty. Understand that Steve and I had independently calculated that the forms would need between 5.2 and 5.3 cubic yards of concrete. I had ordered 5 ½ yards, just to be safe. When the truck hit the big E, we still needed another quarter yard to finish filling the forms. Disaster!!!! At that point there was nothing to do but scavenge every single concrete morsel that was not in the form
and not completely dry. By the time that was done, it was well past 3 o’clock, which meant that toweling and edging the forms was becoming increasingly hard as the mix solidified. We got ‘er done, but the result was far from professional quality. Fortunately, most of the footers will be covered by rock walls and dirt, so a lot of the mistakes will be (rightfully!) buried. As we were finishing up at 5 o’clock, Perry stopped by to observe progress, learn a few more swear words, and enjoy a beer by the camp fire.
28° when I arose… but it was a dry cold, so quite pleasant. Josh LaFlam was here all day helping to dig out shed footer trenches. Tammy arrived at noon with her Kubota loader / backhoe. In 15 minutes she finished digging out the second half of the shallow footer trenches that Josh and I had been working on by hand all morning. Tammy then tackled the two deep holes needed for the Big Foot footers that will prevent the north end of the shed from being affected by frost heaving. She uncovered and removed a half-dozen Leicester nuggets of the half-ton size. Needless to say, if Josh and I had attempted to dig those holes by hand, we’d still be at it come Christmas... 2011! Having Tammy do that work was one of the smartest moves I’ve EVER made! Further evidence (are you listening, beloved wife?) of why I NEED my own loader / backhoe. On her truck Tammy had the mechanical tamper that I was going to rent tomorrow to pack down the footer trenches, which she let me borrow to do that job. The first black flies of the season made their appearance, but were not bothersome. Built and began the placement ritual for the south end footer form. “Placement ritual?”, you ask. Remember the ledge that Bob LaPorte uncovered when the shed cellar hole was dug? Well, the footer form had to fit around a piece of that ledge. Obviously, we had to recite the proper imprecations as part of the placing of that form, hence the ritual. After skipping lunch, a steak, slightly seared over the fire pit, went down real easy, helped by some Standing Stone Winery vin rosé. Afterwards, somehow forgot to call younger son to wish him a happy 27th birthday. Me one bad 