12 May 2011

Had to cut some additional rebar first thing this morning.  Who needs a rebar cutter when a few minutes with a hacksaw, a handy concrete column, a couple of quick-clamps, and a piece of pipe will do the job almost as well?  So either the empty truck weight per the registration certificate, or the Carrara Concrete truck scale, or the ancient and much abused baby scale that I use to weigh cement, sand, water, and stone when mixing concrete isn’t too accurate.  Which one are you betting on?  It took seven batches of concrete (each batch weighing in at 110 pounds per the baby scale) to fill the footer forms, but there was only stone enough for 6¾ loads.  At 50 pounds of stone per batch, that equals 338 pounds (per the baby scale), not the 720 pounds I thought I had.  That last batch was kind of “sandy” – hope nothing too heavy ever pushes down on that section of the footer.  Definitely a FBF beekeeper hat kind of day… and the mosquitoes are starting to make themselves known. After the concreting was done, returned his hammer drill to Perry, then set about securing the work / camp site for a ten-day absence, loading the van with all the retrograde cargo going to Virginia.  Was hot and sweaty when that was done, so I went down to lock up the dock shack and took a quick dip in the lake.  I’m guessing mid-50’s for the water temperature… not quite ready for swim season.  Cleaned Delores after dinner.  Too exciting for mere words, but wouldn’t want the mice to think I was a lousy housekeeper while I am in Virginia.